Feb 03, 2022 14:00:00

Developed a new substance that is harder than steel and lighter like plastic by a method called 'impossible'

Despite being only about one-sixth as dense as steel, it is about twice as strong as steel. A new material '2DPA-1' has been created that is lightweight, easy to manufacture, and has the potential to completely impervious liquid.

Irreversible synthesis of an ultrastrong two-dimensional polymer material | Nature

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04296-3

New lightweight material is stronger than steel | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
https://news.mit.edu/2022/polymer-lightweight-material-2d-0202

'2DPA-1' developed by Yuwen Zeng et al. Of Massachusetts Institute of Technology is mainly composed of melamine , and is a substance that spreads on a plane by the self-organizing process found in snowflakes and the like.

It has been considered impossible to form a two-dimensional structure like a sheet because a polymer in which a large number of molecules are bonded usually expands three-dimensionally. However, Yuwen et al. Devised a new polymerization reaction process called polyaramid and succeeded in creating a substance that grows two-dimensionally.

The elastic modulus of 2DPA-1, which indicates the difficulty of deformation, is 4 to 6 times that of bulletproof glass, which is about1/6 the density of steel, but the yield strength is about 2 times that of steel. Another important feature is that it does not allow gas to pass through because it binds tightly, and there is a possibility that it will be possible to develop an ultra-thin sheet that does not completely allow gas or liquid to pass through in the future.

'The process of growth occurs naturally in solution. Advances in this research have made it much easier to mold materials that are very thin but very strong,' Yuwen et al. .. Yuwen et al. Are studying in more detail how 2DPA-1 is formed and whether it is possible to change the molecular composition.