The fix is in: Team studies self-healing polymers
(Phys.org) —A surfboard that seals its own cracks without having to cure in the sun for days. Underwater structures that can be fixed with less work and downtime. Joints that are almost instantly...
View Article'Shape-shifting' material could help reconstruct faces
Injuries, birth defects (such as cleft palates) or surgery to remove a tumor can create gaps in bone that are too large to heal naturally. And when they occur in the head, face or jaw, these bone...
View ArticleResearchers discover a way to cause surface coating properties to change in...
(Phys.org) —A team of researchers with members from Russia, Lebanon and Germany has found a way to cause a polymer coating to respond to environmental factors in just seconds, instead of the minutes or...
View ArticleExperiment shows potential of X-ray laser to study complex, poorly understood...
Plastics are made of polymers, which are a challenge for scientists to study. Their chainlike strands of thousands of atoms are tangled up in a spaghetti-like jumble, their motion can be measured at...
View ArticleResearchers develop novel method for making electrical cellulose fibers
By using liquid salts during formation instead of harsh chemicals, fibers that conduct electricity can be strengthened, according to a patent issued to a team of researchers at The University of Alabama.
View ArticleElectrically conductive plastics promising for batteries, solar cells
(Phys.org) —An emerging class of electrically conductive plastics called "radical polymers" may bring low-cost, transparent solar cells, flexible and lightweight batteries and ultrathin antistatic...
View ArticleGentle caffeine boost for premature babies
Swiss researchers have developed a UV-activated membrane which releases a gentle dose of medication to the skin of a patient. In future those who fear injections will be able to sleep soundly, as will...
View ArticleWater purification at the molecular level
(Phys.org) —Fracking for oil and gas is a dirty business. The process uses millions of gallons of water laced with chemicals and sand. Most of the contaminated water is trucked to treatment plants to...
View ArticleClearing a path for electrons in polymers: Closing in on the speed limits
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have identified a class of low-cost, easily-processed semiconducting polymers which, despite their seemingly disorganised internal structure, can transport...
View ArticleORNL thermomagnetic processing method provides path to new materials
For much the same reason LCD televisions offer eye-popping performance, a thermomagnetic processing method developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory can advance the...
View ArticleNew single-step method for conserving waterlogged wooden artefacts
(Phys.org) —A safer, greener material for conserving waterlogged wooden artefacts, such as those recovered from Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose, could preserve important pieces of our history for...
View ArticleHeat-conducting plastic developed
The spaghetti-like internal structure of most plastics makes it hard for them to cast away heat, but a University of Michigan research team has made a plastic blend that does so 10 times better than...
View ArticleUltimate recycling: New plastic that disappears when you want it to
Plastic populates our world through everything from electronics to packaging and vehicles. Once discarded, it resides almost permanently in landfills and oceans. A discovery by researchers at North...
View ArticlePhysicists create new kind of pasta to explain mysterious, ring-shaped polymers
Two physicists from the University of Warwick have taken to the kitchen to explain the complexity surrounding what they say is one of the last big mysteries in polymer physics.
View ArticleResearchers develop inexpensive hydrolysable polymer
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have figured out how to reverse the characteristics of a key bonding material—polyurea—providing an inexpensive alternative for a broad...
View ArticleSolar cell polymers with multiplied electrical output
One challenge in improving the efficiency of solar cells is that some of the absorbed light energy is lost as heat. So scientists have been looking to design materials that can convert more of that...
View ArticleNew catalyst process uses light, not metal, for rapid polymerization
A team of chemistry and materials science experts from University of California, Santa Barbara and The Dow Chemical Company has created a novel way to overcome one of the major hurdles preventing the...
View ArticleFine-tuned supramolecular polymerization
In nature, supramolecular complexes—chain-like structures that are composed of many small units linked mainly by weak non-covalent bonds—are assembled and disassembled in a precisely controlled way....
View ArticleElectrochromic polymers create broad color palette for sunglasses, windows
Artists, print designers and interior decorators have long had access to a broad palette of paint and ink colors for their work. Now, researchers have created a broad color palette of electrochromic...
View ArticleNovel non-stick material joins portfolio of slippery surface technologies
More than 80 percent of microbial infections in the human body are caused by a build-up of bacteria, according to the National Institutes of Health. Bacteria cells gain a foothold in the body by...
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