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Lignin’ on a dream!
The paint can cool buildings by as much as 6°C compared to the surroundings.
Neat trick.
They're bending the rules!
Walk a mile in these shoes.
Sweet.
By adding fibers, scientists have turned a soft gel into a material tougher than many metals.
It overcomes a major hurdle in plastic recycling.
For centuries, chocolatiers have been trying to develop the perfect chocolate coating for bonbons, honing their skill to the point of artistic performance. But scientists believe they can take things even further.
This polymer can change shape and release tremendous amounts of stored elastic energy relative to its weight simply by being exposed to a temperature change. This in itself isn't exactly new, but the team led by Chemical Engineering Professor Mitch Anthamatten at the University of Rochester innovated by making the polymer react to room temperature -- a first.
MIT scientists have developed a material that can absorb solar energy, stores and release it on demand to produce heat. Made from a film of polymer, the material could be used to used to tailor cold climate garments that charge up during the day and keep you pleasantly warm in the evening.
When your plastic device breaks, there's basically nothing else to do but shrug, try to glue it then go on with your life. But wouldn't it be useful if the plastic itself could fix itself? Let me illustrate with the latest creation to come off the Pennsylvania State University lab: a bioplastic containing a novel mix of proteins derived from squid sucker ring teeth that can fuse back together when water is added. Once its 'healed', the bulk bioplastic return to its previous compression and tensile strength, so its not fragile.
A new liquid-infused polymer can make sure that medical equipment is bacteria free by being extremely slippery. This technology, which involves silicone infused with a silicone oil also has a myriad of potential applications outside of medical equipment - in the oil industry, in air planes and cosmetics.
Researchers at the Université de Strasbourg made a polymer gel that is able to contract similar to how a muscle concentrates motor proteins to elicit motion. The contraction occurs under the influence of light, but besides contraction, the gel also stores some of the absorbed light.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a way to enlarge and map brain samples. This inexpensive technique will now allow scientists to get a much closer look at the human brian and perhaps figure out some of its long standing secrets.
In the past years, several types of invisibility cloaks have been developed, hiding objects not only from light, but also from sound and even heat. But this is the first time an invisibility cloak for touch has been developed. Recently, we’ve written quite a lot about invisibility cloaks – how they work, how they can be […]
Stanford chemical engineers have developed a theoretical model that sheds light on the electrical conductivity properties of polymers. Their work provides a valuable first step for other researchers to build on, providing an experimental setting for those looking to expand the electrical conductivity of certain polymers (typically plastics) for use in the industry. The word […]
Say hello to drop-proof smartphones and whole new generation of plastic products that will be far more durable and strong than their present counterparts. Scientists at Duke University recently unveiled their most recent, stunning work: a new type of polymer that seems to contradict common knowledge and re-arranges its chemical structure each time its under […]
Ever since the days of the ancient Greek, people were puzzled by the fact that apparently, hippos sweat blood; this belief propagated for more than a millenium. Now, we know that the thick red substance, which oozes from glands all over its skin, is one of the hippo’s many ingenious survival tools. Thing is, hippos […]
Data storage has reached great heights in the past two decades. You can now fit in a typical PC hard-drive thousands of CDs and millions of floppy disks (who else remembers these?). However, magnetic hard drive developers have almost reached the physical limit to where they can cram up data. Researchers at University of Texas at […]
This has the potential to be the holy graal of solar energy – UCLA researchers have developed a new organic polymer that produces electricity, is nearly transparent and much more resistant than silicone. If you think about solar cells, usually, the blacker the better – the blacker they are, the less energy is lost. But […]
New tests conducted by MIT researchers working at the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies showed nanomaterials could lead to better armor against pretty much everything, from all sort of bullets to micrometeorites. Go small to go big In the good old days, if you wanted a good armor, you had to bulk up. First it was […]
Oil spills are one of the most devastating man-made ecological disasters out there. During such an outbreak, millions of gallons of oil can end up in the ocean, killing countless marine life, as well as harming the ecosystem. Handling such disasters, beyond pointing fingers which comes to no avail to the marine life, has become […]
Since they were first invented in 1931, aerogels have become widely used in the industry, mostly for insulation purposes, thanks to their low thermal conductivity and light weight. Traditional silica aerogels, however, are brittle and obtuse, typically unsuited for applications where flexing of the material would occur. A novel class of polymer aerogels seeks to fix […]
A team of experts in mechanics, materials, medicine and tissue engineering have managed to create a self replicating gel which can stretch about 21 times its length. The water-based tough gel is also self-healing and biocompatible, which means it could be perfect for people with cartilage injuries. When 1+1 isn’t 2 The new hydrogel (names […]
One of the cutting edge technologies currently used today in manufacturing allows for printing materials directly onto a surface to create electrically functioning devices which are very thin and flexible. The best example of such an application are organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), widely used as displays for most new generation smartphones commercially available now. The […]
When it’s really hot and sunny outside, a black roof gets really hot, while a white roof reflects rays from the sun and keeps the house cooler. During the wintertime, a black roof absorbs more heat and helps you save more energy, but in the summer, that can be a really pain. Luckily enough, some […]
Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA for short) is a thermoplastic and transparent plastic that’s called acrylic glass for short. In the not so distant future it could be made from natural products such as sugars, alcohols or fatty acids. This process is much more environmentally friendly than the process used now. PMMA is manufactured by polymerising methyl […]
