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MIT Engineers Create the “Impossible” – New Material That Is Stronger Than Steel and As Light as Plastic
SciTechDaily ^ | 02/03/2022

Posted on 02/03/2022 6:30:32 PM PST by BenLurkin

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, forming disks. These disks stack on top of each other, held together by hydrogen bonds between the layers, which make the structure very stable and strong.

Because the material self-assembles in solution, it can be made in large quantities by simply increasing the quantity of the starting materials. The researchers showed that they could coat surfaces with films of the material, which they call 2DPA-1.

The researchers found that the new material’s elastic modulus — a measure of how much force it takes to deform a material — is between four and six times greater than that of bulletproof glass. They also found that its yield strength, or how much force it takes to break the material, is twice that of steel, even though the material has only about one-sixth the density of steel.

Another key feature of 2DPA-1 is that it is impermeable to gases. While other polymers are made from coiled chains with gaps that allow gases to seep through, the new material is made from monomers that lock together like LEGOs, and molecules cannot get between them.

(Excerpt) Read more at scitechdaily.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: 2dpa1; massachusetts; melamine; mit; physics; polyaramide; polymer; polymerization
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To: Fai Mao

Elon Musk is already using it for the Cybertruck windows.


61 posted on 02/03/2022 9:03:47 PM PST by ctdonath2 (Statistics don't matter when they happen to you.)
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To: BenLurkin

Stronger than steel at 1/6 the weight. There are limitless uses for such a material.


62 posted on 02/03/2022 9:13:20 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants (Inside every liberal is a blood-thirsty fascist yearning to be free of current societal constraints.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Huge in the automotive industry.

I can see them halving the sheet metal and having nearly impossible to dent cars in minor collisions.


63 posted on 02/03/2022 9:18:21 PM PST by Jonty30 (I love giving directions, because it is like me tell people where to go and how to get there.)
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To: BenLurkin; AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; BraveMan; ...
Wow, what a great development to help MIT build Chinese industry.

64 posted on 02/03/2022 9:20:51 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: BenLurkin

Reminds me of Atlas Shrugged. Government will kill it.


65 posted on 02/03/2022 9:28:27 PM PST by MrChips ("To wisdom belongs the apprehension of eternal things." - St. Augustine )
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To: BenLurkin

The dwarves did it first with mithril


66 posted on 02/03/2022 10:12:57 PM PST by pangaea6
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To: Oscar in Batangas

Reardon metal is all well & good, but I’m holding out for cavorite.


67 posted on 02/04/2022 12:06:20 AM PST by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!)
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To: ApplegateRanch

High hopes?


68 posted on 02/04/2022 3:35:26 AM PST by null and void (81 million votes ≠ 81 million voters)
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To: Jonty30

No need for super materials to make homes last 500 years. I have stayed in 500+ year-old homes in the UK they are built with Cob and have walls two plus feet thick. Don’t build your home out of match sticks and tar paper. Use earth, stone and mortar your can easily build a multiple century structure. Thr labor cost and builders cooperate profits is why stick abd paper homes are built in the states.


69 posted on 02/04/2022 3:39:12 AM PST by JD_UTDallas ("Veni Vidi Vici" )
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To: JD_UTDallas

I understand that and Rammed Earth housing works very well, but I don’t think Americans in general like Rammed earth houses, because of the square footage that gets eaten up by the thickness of the walls.

Most Americans, if they live in a 2500 sqft home, from the outside want as close as possible a 2500 sqft home, on the inside, don’t want to lose 400sqft to the walls.


70 posted on 02/04/2022 3:46:01 AM PST by Jonty30 (I love giving directions, because it is like me tell people where to go and how to get there.)
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To: BenLurkin

Donald Fagen. Nice.


71 posted on 02/04/2022 4:19:49 AM PST by BozoTexino (RIP GOP)
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To: telescope115

One of my favorite books!


72 posted on 02/04/2022 5:03:46 AM PST by left that other site (A Man Without Self-Control is like a City Broken Into and Left Without Walls (Proverbs 25:28))
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To: Jonty30

30 mile march. NOOOOOO!

My last march was in the summer of 2008, outside of Khowst, AFG. I was 48 and the soldiers I was supporting were averaging 24. We went 10 km and back. They had the guns and the ammo, I carried the radio and extra batteries. A portion of my cartilage broke loose and slid down my spinal cord until it lodged into the hole where the nerve for the right leg went through. I could walk but there was no joy in it.

I finished up my tour, did all my work. Got back to the USA and spent three years trying to find someone who could tell me what was wrong.

BLUF - I don’t do ruck marches anymore and will never do them again.


73 posted on 02/04/2022 5:05:08 AM PST by wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)
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To: Lazamataz

Truthfully, this happens all of the time.

The primary researchers are US or former USSR. The assistants, writers, basic laboratory procedures, etc., are done by Chinese interns or students who want this to get their name on a paper.

I knew a professor around 2011 in Phoenix who credited the Chinese with the best facilities, best work ethic, best attention to detail, best ability to follow procedures of every single student or researcher he ever met.

But he never expected or got an original idea from any of them. Their whole system rewards mass recitation of what their superiors said and believed, and no dissension was allowed or expected.


74 posted on 02/04/2022 5:09:22 AM PST by wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)
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To: wbarmy

But you could, if you weighed 15lbs less.


75 posted on 02/04/2022 5:10:35 AM PST by Jonty30 (I love giving directions, because it is like me tell people where to go and how to get there.)
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To: Jonty30

Ouch. My snowflake just melted.

I refuse to do that again. They were young studs and my stud days were behind me even at 48. I kept up, I did my part for the team, and I carried their radio equipment.

But I was not and never will be, at 61, the door kicker or first man in.


76 posted on 02/04/2022 5:18:35 AM PST by wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)
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To: SunkenCiv
Wow, what a great development to help MIT build Chinese industry.

Ding, ding, ding - We have a thread winnah!

77 posted on 02/04/2022 7:16:31 AM PST by GOPJ (Hey Garland - it's not 'gun' violence - IT'S CRIMINAL VIOLENCE.)
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To: BenLurkin

Well by `76 we’ll be a-okay! What a wonderful world this will be! What a glorious time to be free.


78 posted on 02/04/2022 10:16:52 AM PST by Buckeye Battle Cry (Progressivism is socialism. Venezuela is how it ends.)
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To: Buckeye Battle Cry

A just machine
To make big decisions

Programmed by fellas
With compassion and vision

We’ll be clean
When their work is done

We’ll be eternally free
Yes, and eternally young


79 posted on 02/04/2022 10:18:23 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: BenLurkin

Motorcycle helmets..................and motorcycles!.............


80 posted on 02/04/2022 10:19:48 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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