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The smart plastic that can lift 1,000 times its own weight : could change medicine forever

CAPSLOCKSTUCK

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Scientist have created a new type of 'super polymer' that could transform the healthcare and clothing industries.
The polymer can lift 1,000 times its own weight and be programmed to hold a temporary shape until it is triggered by heat to return to its original form.
By altering the number and types of molecular linkers that connect individual strands, researchers were able to adjust the material's stability and set the point when the shape change is triggered.





The research team led by Chemical Engineering Professor Mitch Anthamatten at the University of Rochester created a material that undergoes a shape change that can be triggered by body heat alone, opening the door for new medical and other applications.




HOW IS THE 'SUPER POLYMER' CREATED?

The first step in designing this material with shape shifting power was to identify how to control crystallization that occurs when the material is cooled and stretched.
While the material is in a contorted shape, polymer chains are locally stretched and small segments set themselves in the same direction in small ares, or domains, called crystallizes, which fix the material into a temporarily deformed shape.
As the number of crystallizes grows, the polymer shape becomes more and more stable, making it increasingly difficult for the material to revert back to its initial—or 'permanent'—shape.
By including molecular linkers as a way to connect the individual polymer strands, researchers figured out how to tune the trigger temperature.
Anthamatten's group discovered that linkers inhibit—but don't stop—crystallization when the material is stretched.
By altering the number and types of linkers used, as well as how they're distributed throughout the polymer network, researchers were able to adjust the material's stability and precisely set the melting point at which the shape change is triggered.







 

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