SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONAL CENTER science idea

Scientists from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a new material that has the strongest adhesive properties to date, i.e. ability to adhere to the surface of other materials. And the adhesive composition created on the basis of this material is the most durable adhesive to date, the gluing place, with an area of ​​\u200b\u200bonly one square centimeter, withstands a rupture force of 136 kilograms. But the most interesting thing is that the basis of the new material is one of the types of conventional plastic widely used in household appliances.

In their work, scientists at ORNL took the plastic SEBS (polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene-co-butylene)-b-polystyrene) and began to make changes to its chemical structure. This was done using the dynamic crosslinking process, which is commonly used to connect incompatible materials. Silicon nanoparticles and boron esters, complex chemical compounds directly involved in the cross-linking process, were introduced into the volume of plastic.

As a result, scientists have received a new composite material, called SiNP. The cross-links in this material, formed with boron esters, can be broken and re-formed an unlimited number of times, which gives this material the ability to adhere to and connect to the surface of other materials through the formation of new cross-links.

“Adhesive compositions with record performance are very difficult to design due to the fact that they must include hard and elastic components, which are usually mutually exclusive properties,” the researchers write, “But we managed to solve this problem by using dynamic chemical bonds , and this gave the new material a number of unique properties that other adhesive materials do not have.”

Tests have shown that the SiNP material retains its adhesive properties at temperatures up to 205 degrees Celsius, it has high chemical resistance and is suitable for reuse. All this opens up a very, very wide range of applications for the material, which includes the aerospace industry, automotive, construction, medicine, and even agriculture.

And now, ORNL researchers are working to improve the production technology of the SiNP material, adapting it to the requirements and characteristics of large-scale industrial production. And if they manage to do this, then in the near future we will have a new glue at our disposal, against which samples of even the best types of "superglue" will look very pale.

Article published in Science Advances

PHOTO: New adhesive made from recycled plastic is said to be one of the strongest materials ever created © Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Source: dailytechinfo.org, sci-dig.ru