Professor Ludwig Gauckler (Credit: ETH)
A team of researchers guided by Professor Ludwig Gauckler in Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland have developed a new light and stretching material which has the strength of a metal. It is actually a nanocomposite of aluminum oxide and a polymer, which mimics nanostructures found naturally in our environment such as shells, bones and tooth enamel.
Here’ what TFOT’s article says about the material
Gauckler’s material, which is five times as strong as a material previously created at MIT, but is also stretchy. Film composite is as strong as aluminum foil and can be stretched to expand by up to 25 percent of its size, while regular aluminum foil would break at 2 percent.
The scientists created the material by dispersing aluminum oxide platelets in ethanol and spreading the mixture over water. The platelets arranged themselves into a single layer on the water’s surface. A glass plate was dipped into the solution, transferring the platelets onto the glass. A layer of biocompatible polymer chitosan was then deposited on top and the process was repeated until the final composite was a few tens of micrometers thick. The material was then peeled off the glass plate with a razor blade. The ratio between the length and thickness of the platelets has to be just right, said the researchers. If it is too high, the platelets break when the material is stretched. If it is too low, the material is not very stiff.
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