"Smart Plastics" With Soft And Hard Properties Can Be Used In Flexible Wearable Electronic Products

In developing this new material, scientists took inspiration from natural materials, which are rigid in some places and soft and elastic in others. Skin, muscle, trees and shellfish are several examples the team provides, but creating a composite version of mixed strength and flexibility is difficult. Previous methods include mixing different materials together, but this has its disadvantages, and the finished product tends to spread at the joint.

In this branch of materials science, a new type of plastic like material has made a breakthrough, the researchers claim. As a starting point, chemists used monomers, small molecules that aggregate together to form polymers. In this case, the polymer is very similar to the polymer in common plastics, but with one or two special techniques.

After testing more than a dozen candidate materials, scientists have found a catalyst that can be integrated into monomers to react to visible light and deliver it with cheap blue LEDs. This has the effect of creating a semi crystalline polymer with properties similar to rubber, forming a hard material. At the same time, areas not exposed to light are still soft and elastic.

"This is the first of its kind," said Zachariah page, an assistant professor of chemistry and corresponding author of the paper. "The ability to control crystallization by applying light, and thus control the physical properties of materials, could be a revolution for the actuators of wearable electronic devices or soft robots."

The plastic like material is 10 times as tough as natural rubber, but has different physical properties in different regions, the researchers said. Scientists imagine that their creations have a wide range of applications, including fixing electronic components in wearable technologies or medical devices, and improving the strength and flexibility of robots.

"We are looking forward to exploring the use of this chemical method to create 3D objects with hard and soft components," said lead author Adrian rylski

The study was published in the journal Science.