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Scientists say they have created an experimental new high-tech window coating that works similarly to polarized lenses on sunglasses by allowing all of the visible light through while also reflecting unwanted heat. If added to existing buildings and car windows, the new coating could reduce internal temperatures in hotter climates without sacrificing any of the visible light while also reducing energy usage for indoor air conditioning by as much as 30%. The new coating was developed by researchers from Notre Dame University who were looking for a cheap yet viable way to reduce the use of air conditioning in cars...

The new material is a two-dimensional polymer that self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers, which form one-dimensional, spaghetti-like chains. Such a material could be used as a lightweight, durable coating for car parts or cell phones, or as a building material for bridges or other structures... Strano and his colleagues came up with a new polymerization process that allows them to generate a two-dimensional sheet called a polyaramide. For the monomer building blocks, they use a compound called melamine, which contains a ring of carbon and nitrogen atoms. Under the right conditions, these monomers can grow in two dimensions,...

The interface between the hydrogel (left-hand side) and the PDMS (on the right-hand side). Engineers have developed a new material that mimics human cartilage—the body's shock absorbing and lubrication system, and it could herald the development of a new generation of lightweight bearings. Cartilage is a soft fibrous tissue found around joints which provides protection from the compressive loading generated by walking, running or lifting. It also provides a protective, lubricating layer allowing bones to pass over one another in a frictionless way. For years, scientists have been trying to create a synthetic material with the properties of cartilage....

A polymer that self-destructs? While once a fictional idea, new polymers now exist that are rugged enough to ferry packages or sensors into hostile territory and vaporize immediately upon a military mission's completion. The material has been made into a rigid-winged glider and a nylon-like parachute fabric for airborne delivery across distances of a hundred miles or more. It could also be used someday in building materials or environmental sensors. The researchers will present their results today at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2019 National Meeting & Exposition. "This is not the kind of thing that slowly degrades over...

One challenge facing researchers was learning how to control crystallization of the polymer. As similar shape-shifting materials are stretched or cooled, atomic strands of polymer molecules re-align, driving the object to stay in the "temporary" alignment. This process makes it more and more difficult to bring the object back to its "relaxed," original form. Individual "linkers" were used to connect the molecules, reducing the effects of crystallization in the new polymer. By carefully controlling the placement of the linking chains, researchers were able to precisely direct the turning point of the material. When the new polymer is removed from the...

Scientists Create Terminator 2-Like Material That Heals Itself ... (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Technological Singularity) In Terminator 2, the T-1000 android was blown nearly in two, only to mend itself by pulling its mercury-like substance back together. Scientists have long been working on creating a polymer to do the same thing, but previous research always required an external factor (like temperature or pressure) to work. Scientists at the CIDETEC Center for Electrochemical Technologies in Spain succeeded where other scientists have failed: they've invented a plastic polymer that will heal itself all on its own....

According to the Taurus press release, their new polymer revolver is “a modern update on a classic design . . . built for those who want the best of old and new.” Or one of the hardest guns in the world to shoot accurately at anything other than bad breath distance. “Taurus’s new polymer hybrid frame makes the revolver lightweight and easy to carry.” I understand the need for concealability (even though the Polymer Protector has an exposed hammer ready to rip your jacket or pants to pieces and slow your draw to a crawl). I get the simplicity of...

Skin is spectacular stuff. Nick it with a razor or scrape it on the sidewalk, and it heals itself quickly. Synthetic materials are another story, although it’s not for lack of effort on the part of scientists. Chemists have tried for years to develop self-healing polymer coatings for use on cars, furniture and other objects. Recent efforts use microspheres containing bonding chemicals. These tiny capsules are embedded in the coating. When a crack or scratch occurs, the spheres break and the chemicals flow into the void, patching it. Biswajit Ghosh and Marek W. Urban of the University of Southern Mississippi...

Source: University of Delaware Date: January 3, 2007 Scientists Discover New Class Of Polymers Science Daily — They said it couldn't be done. And that's what really motivated polymer chemist Chris Snively and Jochen Lauterbach, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Delaware. Since the late 1990s, Lauterbach and Snively have been developing a method to make extremely thin polymer layers on surfaces. The film covering the surface of these metal samples is at least 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. (Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson) For years, polymer chemistry textbooks have stated that a whole class of...

Researchers have developed advanced shape-memory polymers that could find uses as expandable stents and fasteners that close themselves. The researchers who developed self-tying sutures that change shape when exposed to light have now made morphing structures that can take on three consecutive shapes in response to changes in temperature. The shape-changing polymers could eventually be employed as removable stents and self-closing fasteners used in assembling complex parts. The structures are made of shape-memory polymers, a class of materials that change from one preset shape to another in response to a new condition, such as increased heat. In the past few...

Microscale lenses and better materials move OLEDs closer to lighting our world. In an advance that could hasten the day when energy-efficient glowing plastic sheets replace traditional lightbulbs, a method for printing microscopic lenses nearly doubles the amount of photons coming out of the materials, called organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. Stephen Forrest, an electrical engineer and vice president of research at the University of Michigan, says his technology increases the light output of the thin, flexible OLEDs by 70 percent. "They just create local curvature that allows light to pass through," he explains. This means that OLEDs, which are...

Sorry for the shameless vanity, but...plastic rifle ammo? I just bought a few boxes of NATEC polymer-cased ammunition. I'm extremely impressed.

In a paper published on the Nature Materials Web site on January 9, senior author and Professor Ted Sargent, Nortel Networks -- Canada Research Chair in Emerging Technologies at the University of Toronto's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his team report on their achievement in tailoring matter to harvest the sun's invisible, infrared rays. "We made particles from semiconductor crystals which were exactly two, three or four nanometres in size," Sargent said. "The nanoparticles were so small they remained dispersed in everyday solvents just like the particles in paint," explains Sargent. Sargent's team then tuned the tiny nanocrystals...

Much discussed among computer circles is the so-called end of Moore's Law and its predictions of ever-smaller, faster circuits. Less known is a challenge facing the next generation of hard disk drives: lubricant coatings that can hold up to faster speeds and denser data. Perfluoropolyethers (PFPEs), the current industry standard, are running up against the polymer's limits in protecting hard drives against daily wear and tear. So University of Illinois PhD candidate Wei Xiao developed an entirely new lubricant, based on inexpensive and abundant polyester. She presented her work today for the first time at the 228th national meeting of...

Electronic skin could give machines a sophisticated sense of touch. A flexible friend: rubber polymers form the basis of an electronic skin.© Takao Someya Group Robots are about to get more feeling. An electronic skin as sensitive to touch as our own is being developed by scientists in Japan."Recognition of tactile information will be very important for future generations of robots," says Takao Someya at the University of Tokyo who developed the skin. A sense of touch would help them to identify objects, carry out delicate tasks and avoid collisions. But while a lot of effort has gone into vision...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – What are the limits of organic life in planetary systems? It’s a heady question that, if answered, may reveal just how crowded the cosmos could be with alien biology. A study arm of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Research Council (NRC), has pulled together a task group of specialists to tackle the issue of alternative life forms -- a.k.a. "weird life". To get things rolling, a workshop on the prospects for finding life on other worlds is being held here May 10-11. The meeting is a joint activity of the NRC’s Space Studies Board's Task...

An enzyme-catalysed battery has been created that could one day run cell phones and laptop computers on shots of vodka. The key to the device is a new polymer that protects the fragile enzymes used to break down the ethanol fuel, scientists told the American Chemical Society's annual meeting in New Orleans on Monday. Enzyme-based batteries have the potential to be cheaper than fuel cells that rely on expensive platinum or ruthenium catalysts. "It sounds great," says Bob Hockaday, founder of the company Energy Related Devices and designer of a methanol-powered battery. "Enzymes are inexpensive and catalytically very active." Fuel...