The U.S. military develops new self-healing polymers with shape memory and recyclability

Researchers at Texas A&M University and the Army Research Laboratory of the.

Army Combat Capability Development Command have developed a new series of synthetic materials that vary in texture from very soft to very ha.
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The result is a new material that can be 3D printed, self-healed, and recyclable, and naturally adhere to each other in the air or underwat.
Scientists said that the properties of this group of materials can be fine-tuned to the softness of rubber or the strength of load-bearing plasti.
The material can heal itself within a few seconds and can be 3D printed, so it is very suitable for more realistic prosthetics and soft robo.
The researchers said that this material also has a wide range of military applications, including agile platforms for aircraft and futuristic self-healing aircraft win.
Synthetic polymers consist of long repeating molecular groups, like beads on chai.
The long chains of the elastomer are lightly cross-linked, giving the material a rubbery fe.
The researchers said that cross-linking can also increase the number of cross-links to make the elastomer hard.
The team focused on a kind of matrix polymer called prepolym.
They chemically nailed two types of small cross-linking molecules-furan and maleimi.
When the number of these molecules in the prepolymer increased, they found that they could make harder materia.
The hardest material made in this way is 1000 times stronger than the softest materi.
Furan and maleimide can predict the type of reversible chemical bonds, enabling them to click and not click together according to temperature chang.
At high temperatures, the molecules in the material will separate and become soft, while at room temperature, the material will harden to form crosslin.

Future research will try to increase the functionality of the material by amplifying its properti.