Scientists at MIT have created 2-dimensional polymers that are as light as plastic but stronger than steel.
Scientists at MIT have created 2-dimensional polymers that are a light as plastic but stronger than steel.Science does not respect timetables. Sometimes it takes years or even decades of experiments, blind alleys, and failures before a breakthrough occurs. Scientists at MIT have been trying for two decades to make a 2-dimensional polymer, something that all their theories and models suggested was possible but could never be actually created in the lab.
However, in the new study, Strano and his colleagues came up with a new polymerization process that allows them to generate a 2-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.
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. “With this advance, we have planar molecules that are going to be much easier to fashion into a very strong, but extremely thin material,” Strano says.
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