Inspired from living things, from plants to shellfish, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin began to create plastics (“Smart Plastic” is a step forward in robotics and soft and flexible electronics) that resemble many forms of life, tough and tough in some areas and flexible and extended to others. Their success – for the first time, using only light and a catalyst to change properties such as the strength and weight of different molecules of the same type – gave birth to a new material 10 times stronger than plastic natural and can lead to changes in electronic equipment. The results are published in the journal Science.
“This is the first of its kind,” said Zachariah Page, associate professor of chemistry and corresponding author. “The ability to control the crystallization, therefore the physical properties of the material, and the application of light can be adapted for wearable electronics or those who do things in soft robotics.”
Scientists have long tried to use synthetic materials to imitate living things, such as skin and muscles. In living things, structures often combine qualities such as strength and flexibility and simplicity. When you use a mixture of different synthetic materials to imitate these qualities, the materials often fall, fall, tear and break between different materials.
“A lot of times when you put things together, especially if they have different properties, they want to separate,” Page said. Page and his team can manipulate and change the structure of materials such as plastic, using light to change the stability or flexibility of the material.
Chemists start with monomers, small molecules that bond together to form large structures called polymers similar to the polymers found in commonly used plastics. After testing about a dozen compounds, they found one that, added to their monomer and exposed to visible light, produced a semi-crystalline polymer similar to that found in existing synthetic rubber. Harder, harder material formed in the fire-affected area, while the fire-free area retained the soft, stretchy material. Since the material is made of different materials, it is stronger and can stretch more than most composite materials.
The reaction takes place at room temperature, the monomer and catalyst are commercially available, and the researchers use low-blue LED as a light source in the experiment. The reaction takes less than an hour and reduces the use of any hazardous waste, making the process fast, cheap, energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
The researchers will look to develop other materials to continue testing its use. “We hope to explore ways to apply this chemistry to creating 3D objects with both hard and soft materials,” said first author Adrian Rylski, a graduate student at UT Austin.
The team envisions that the material could be used as a flexible foundation for supporting electronic components in medical devices or wearable technology. In robotics, strong and flexible materials are desirable to improve mobility and durability.
