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Ames IA (SPX) Oct 19, 2023 - The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is looking for materials that revolutionize and engineer our future. Researchers at Iowa State University and the University of California, Santa Barbara
The US National Science Foundation (NSF) is in search of materials that “revolutionize and engineer our future.”
Accidental Discovery Two postdoctoral researchers — Renxuan Xie and Sanjoy Mukherjee — working in Bates’ and Chabinyc’s lab played key roles in developing the new material, discovering it quite by accident while they were working on something for another project, they said. However, its ability to hold its shape so well clued them into its capability for use in 3D printing, Bates said. The key to Xie’s and Mukherjee’s discovery involves the self-assembly of bottlebrush polymers at the nanometer length scale, they said. This causes a solid-to-liquid transition in response to applie...
Housing and Development Newsletter “We start with long polymers that are not crosslinked,” said Xie. “That allows them to flow like a fluid. But, after you shine the light on them, the small molecules between the polymer chains react and are linked together into a network, so you have a solid, an elastomer that, when stretched, will return to its original shape.” The softness of a material is measured in terms of its modulus, and for most elastomers, it is rather high, meaning their stiffness and elasticity are similar to those of a rubber band. “The modulus of our material is a tho...