Plastic composite is as strong as steel!, page 1

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 02:39 PM

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Researchers at the University of Michigan have created composite materials composed of nanoscale clay and plastic sheets in a brick-and-mortar configuration analogous to mother-of-pearl. The result, a composite material stronger than steel but lighter. And see-through as well.

New plastic is strong as steel, transparent

By mimicking a brick-and-mortar molecular structure found in seashells, University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that's as strong as steel but lighter and transparent.

It's made of layers of clay nanosheets and a water-soluble polymer that shares chemistry with white glue.

Engineering professor Nicholas Kotov almost dubbed it "plastic steel," but the new material isn't quite stretchy enough to earn that name. Nevertheless, he says its further development could lead to lighter, stronger armor for soldiers or police and their vehicles. It could also be used in microelectromechanical devices, microfluidics, biomedical sensors and valves and unmanned aircraft.

Kotov and other U-M faculty members are authors of a paper on this composite material, "Ultrastrong and Stiff Layered Polymer Nanocomposites," published in the Oct. 5 edition of Science.

The scientists solved a problem that has confounded engineers and scientists for decades: Individual nano-size building blocks such as nanotubes, nanosheets and nanorods are ultrastrong. But larger materials made out of bonded nano-size building blocks were comparatively weak. Until now.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

This is huge. The implications are staggering. One possible use as cited by the article are better armours for law enforcement. I'm thinking better aircraft windows. What do you think?

jpm1602

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 02:42 PM

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Believe it or not I actually had a dream about that last night. I don't remember reading about this anywhere. The implications could be huge. Saving billions of gallons in oil.

aava

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 02:59 PM

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reply to post by jpm1602

How would billions of gallons of oil be saved? Are you saying lighter vehicles and airplanes? Isn't plastic made from oil, so to create more of this material, more oil would be used. Am I incorrect in thinking this?

jpm1602

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 03:02 PM

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Yes, lighter framesworks equals less oil used. Regardless of oil used to make said frameworks.

hoitsu

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 03:44 PM

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I think they have to test this material many years before it actually comes into use somewhere and in that time they allready have made something even stronger and lighter. It is transparent so are we going to see transparent airplanes in the future? Just add that japanese cloaking canvas around machinery and make the chasis with this new material.
Maybe it is a product taken from crashed ufo and now after many years they have intruduced it to the public. Who knows

Could it be used to protect solarpower plates from impacts in space? So many places to use it. Really intresting, thanks for posting this.

Copernicus

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 03:50 PM

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Did anyone else feel sadness over the examples of use in the article? There is always these examples of using new technology for controlling or killing people, or helping to protect people who control and kill people, instead of just helping people.

Personally I was thinking of things like improved housing and stuff like that when I read the headline...

[edit on 4-10-2007 by Copernicus]

Desert Dawg

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 04:00 PM

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Would that be, "stronger than steel" by weight as it is described by hawkers and enthusiasts of a particular material?

Or stronger by dimension?

I read the post and the article and didn't see it mentioned.

Beachcoma

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 04:06 PM

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reply to post by Desert Dawg

I think it's by dimension, as indicated by the first line in the linked article -- "strong as steel but lighter and transparent."

reply to post by Copernicus

Yeah, it's kind of sad the first examples are of a military nature. But they also mentioned unmanned aircraft. That leads to unmanned spacecraft. That's what I'm interested in; lighter payloads for space probes

Copernicus

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 04:09 PM

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Originally posted by Beachcoma
Yeah, it's kind of sad the first examples are of a military nature. But they also mentioned unmanned aircraft. That leads to unmanned spacecraft. That's what I'm interested in; lighter payloads for space probes

I actually figured they meant the unmanned aerial vehicles that are used for spying and killing as well...

[edit on 4-10-2007 by Copernicus]

Beachcoma

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 04:16 PM

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reply to post by Copernicus

Yes, course. But it's step towards the direction I'm most interested in. Somebody has to make money to develop it eventually into a non-aggressive civilian program. The US space program wasn't born out of a need to explore space, it was born out of a need to create better ballistic missiles than the Soviets.

It's sad but unfortunately it's how the economics work for the most part. Private companies usually don't have the funds to develop these sort of things; governments do. And most governments have control as a first priority over everything else. That means weapons and armour.

Xeven

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 04:45 PM

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Space elevator? Lighter weight rockets? Lighter weight space craft?

koenw

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 04:49 PM

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Originally posted by jpm1602
Believe it or not I actually had a dream about that last night. I don't remember reading about this anywhere. The implications could be huge. Saving billions of gallons in oil.

How is using plastic going to cut down our oil consumption? Seeing as plastic is a byproduct of oilrefining...

edit: clarification

[edit on 4-10-2007 by koenw]

Creedo

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 05:00 PM

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Originally posted by koenw

How is using plastic going to cut down our oil consumption? Seeing as plastic is a byproduct of oilrefining...

edit: clarification

[edit on 4-10-2007 by koenw]

Because this product isn't plastic.. therefore not made with petrolium products.

"It's made of layers of clay nanosheets and a water-soluble polymer that shares chemistry with white glue. "

Beachcoma

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 05:01 PM

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reply to post by Creedo

FYI white glue is made from polyvinyl acetate....

Lecter

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 05:09 PM

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Do you mean I could have teeth as strong as that guy from a James Bond movie but they wouldn't be metallic? Wow I cant wait!

[edit on 4-10-2007 by Lecter]

Creedo

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 05:15 PM

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Ahhh... OK... so this would explain the "cut down on oil consumption" rather than eliminate altogether... So this new material I would imagine would use far less oil to produce than traditional plastics.

And there are FAR more useful applications for a material such as this that just military. Heck pretty much anything you currently would make using plastic where an increase in durability and strength would be desired.

Any idea how this stuff holds up to heat and cold?

Beachcoma

posted on Oct, 4 2007 @ 05:23 PM

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Originally posted by Creedo
Any idea how this stuff holds up to heat and cold?

I'm not sure. I can't get access to a free version of the paper they published. The abstracts don't tell me anything I haven't already found out from the article.

Edit: Here's another version of the article from ScienceDaily.com

New Plastic Is Strong As Steel, Transparent

Quoting an interesting part not in the article in the OP:

Collaborators include: mechanical engineering professor Ellen Arruda; aerospace engineering professor Anthony Waas; chemical, materials science and biomedical engineering professor Joerg Lahann; and chemistry professor Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy. Kotov is a professor of chemical engineering, materials science and engineering, and biomedical engineering.

The nanomechanical behavior of these materials is being modeled by professor Arruda's group; Waas and his group are working on applications in aviation.

Yeah, baby! They've got the right idea

[edit on 4-10-2007 by Beachcoma]

Astyanax

posted on Oct, 5 2007 @ 05:39 AM

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reply to post by Beachcoma

Yeah, aviation. Aerospace, actually. That's what sprung directly to mind. Tougher windscreens and portholes. Observation lounges in space hotels.

I think glass-bottomed airliners would be really cool.

Of course there'll be a zillion specialized applications.