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Thanks to new research from a team at the University of California, Merced, electronic wearables and sensors may one day be made from materials that stiffen when impacted or stretched.
This “adaptive durability”, as it is known, is an important property from a materials science point of view. This means protection from damage and resistance to stress, even in harsh environments.
The new material is actually inspired by cornstarch, a food ingredient that is stirred when water is added. Unlike wet sand, which has a constant viscosity whether mixed or punched, cornstarch slurry behaves like a liquid when stirred slowly and like a solid when punched quickly.
When you slowly crush cornstarch, the tiny particles repel each other and act like a liquid. However, when you tap a surface quickly, the surfaces make contact and create friction, causing it to behave like a solid body. This difference in behavior is due to particle size.
The researchers wanted to see if they could get the same results from polymeric materials.
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To achieve this, the team started with conjugated polymers. This is a polymer with special properties that help the material conduct electricity while remaining relatively soft and pliable. These materials can be made from all kinds of combinations of molecules.
in this case, Incorporating long molecules of poly(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid), short polyaniline molecules, and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), which is a highly efficient conductor. is.. Don’t worry if these names aren’t familiar to you. All you really need to know is that this combination created a film that deforms and stretches when subjected to rapid impacts.
The faster the impact, the harder the material became.Add another 10 percent Pedot:PSS Additionally, both the adaptive durability and electrical conductivity of the material have been improved.
By choosing two positively charged polymers and two negatively charged polymers, researchers say they created a material with ultra-small structures that look like miniature meatballs inside a bowl of tangled spaghetti. It is said that it was created. These “meatballs” absorb the impact of an impact without completely disintegrating, keeping the material and its electrical conductivity in place.
Further experiments showed that the addition of positively charged 1,3-propanediamine nanoparticles further improved toughness, slightly weakening the “meatball” (so the material could be subjected to more impact) and increasing the strength of its surroundings. It has been suggested to strengthen the “spaghetti threads” (maintain the integrity of the meatballs). material).
This is all very complex and technical, but if it can be manufactured on a large scale, this material should have applications outside the laboratory. Smartwatch bands, wearable sensors, and health monitors that measure things like cardiovascular health and blood sugar levels are all examples suggested by the research team.
Personalized electronic prosthetics are another potential use case, and researchers are already experimenting with them. Eventually, it will be possible to 3D print prosthetic limbs from this versatile material.
This means the potential for new materials to be discovered and existing materials to be refined, and how they may change our future, from the devices we use to the clothes we wear. It’s a reminder of what’s going on.
“There are many potential applications, and we’re excited to see where this new unconventional property takes us,” said materials scientist Yue Wang.
The research was presented at the American Chemical Society’s Spring 2024 Meeting.
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