Imagine a plastic bag that can carry home your groceries, then quickly degrade, without harming the environment. Or a super-strong, lightweight plastic for airplanes, rockets, and satellites that can replace traditional structural ...
Materials Science
Oct 22, 2020
0
107
Gel-like materials have a wide range of applications, especially in chemistry and medicine. However, their usefulness is sometimes limited by their inherent random and disordered nature. Researchers from the University of ...
Polymers
Dec 6, 2019
0
117
A strategy inspired by the process responsible for muscle growth could lead to the development of stronger, longer-lasting materials.
Polymers
Jan 31, 2019
0
99
The next generation of flexible and transparent displays will require a high-performing and flexible polymeric material that has the optical and thermal properties of glass. The material must be transparent to visible light ...
Polymers
Jan 24, 2019
0
20
An ever-growing number of coatings, including varnishes and printing inks, as well as tooth fillings, are cured with light. Yet, homogenous, tailored, polymer networks cannot be produced, and the materials tend to be brittle, ...
Polymers
Jul 6, 2018
0
65
A pair of engineers at the University of Delaware has developed a process to form interwoven polymer networks more easily, quickly and sustainably than traditional methods allow. Their secret ingredient? Blue light.
Polymers
Jul 29, 2017
0
100
Plastic, rubber, and many other useful materials are made of polymers—long chains arranged in a cross-linked network. At the molecular level, these polymer networks contain structural flaws that weaken them.
Polymers
Apr 24, 2017
0
12
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for creating devices out of a water-based hydrogel material that can be patterned, folded and used to manipulate objects. The technique holds ...
Materials Science
Aug 2, 2013
1
0
(Phys.org)—Irradiation with light is an established method for initiating polymerization or crosslinking (curing) in the production of plastics. American researchers are now using light to retroactively increase the size ...
Polymers
Feb 6, 2013
0
0
(Phys.org) -- For the first time, scientists have identified how a plant's skin is assembled.
Biotechnology
May 22, 2012
0
0
