London - «Al-Quds Al-Arabi»: Scientists have created a new material that is twice as strong as steel but as light as plastic, capable of withstanding strength up to 6 times the strength of bulletproof glass, to protect smartphone screens.
The material, which was invented by experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, achieves something that I thought was impossible for a long time, which is polymerization in two dimensions, according to a report published by the British newspaper "Daily Mail". Polymerization is defined as a process through which small atoms called monomers are joined. polymers together, usually to form long, "spaghetti"-like chains. They can then be shaped into three-dimensional objects such as water bottles, via a process called injection molding. However, scientists have succeeded in creating a material that instead self-assembles in Two-dimensional sheets are more like “lasagna” than “spaghetti.” These sheets, called polyaramides, are stacked on top of each other and held together by strong hydrogen bonds, making the overall material extremely strong. This material can easily be made in large quantities. And this could change the way we make things like cars and phones, or build structures like bridges, say its creators. The material can be adopted either as a coating or as a complete material to build massive structures. It has long been believed that polymers made of two-dimensional sheets could be used to make extremely lightweight materials. However, decades of investigation led to the conclusion that this was impossible, in part because of how it only takes one monomer to twist out of the growing plane of the sheet until the whole thing loses the desired shape. A monomer, or monomer, It is a small molecule that can chemically bind to other monomers similar or not to make a "polymer". The team found that, under the right conditions, the monomers in melamine can be used to grow tiny two-dimensional disks that stack on top of each other, with each layer held together by hydrogen bonds, making them extremely strong and stable. Professor Michael Strano, who led the new study, said: “Instead of making a molecule that looks like spaghetti, we can make a molecular plane that looks like a plate, where we get the molecules to link themselves together in two dimensions. This mechanism occurs spontaneously in solution, and after we synthesize the material, we can easily spin extraordinarily strong thin films.” The team found that deforming the material can require between 4 and 6 times the strength of bulletproof glass. It will take twice as much strength to break down the new material as it does with steel, even though it is one-sixth as dense as steel. And unlike other polymers, whose twisted chains of monomers leave gaps between them that allow gases to escape, these monomers lock together as tightly as Lego, making them Completely impermeable, according to the newspaper report. “This may allow us to create very thin layers that can completely seal off water or gases,” Professor Strano explained. This type of coating can be used to protect metals in cars and other vehicles or steel structures. The MIT team presented Tech has two patents on the process of creating their new material. They are now looking at exactly how their polymer is able to form two-dimensional sheets, in order to see if they can create other types of new and useful materials.
