After reading this video, was it shocked by these amazing technologies?

In fact, these are the latest application progress of new material technology, the following small series will take you to understand what these magical materials are!

1

Hydrophobic material

Nanofur, a new type of oil-absorbing hydrophobic material known as the oil "scavenger", has appeared in the public eye. It was developed by a research team from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.

When it comes to oil spills, the thinking of the famous British BP oil spill in 2010 is an unavoidable heavy topic, but oil spills always occur frequently.

The environmental hazards and the rigors of treatments have led scientists to seek a material that can effectively and efficiently absorb oil.

Inspiration from nature, the hydrophobic structure of the lotus leaf, let scientists decide to go to nature to find the answer.

Inspired by water ferns, the company developed a new material named Nanofur. The surface of this fern leaf has a structure of oil-absorbing and hydrophobic trichomes (hair-like mini-branches between 0.3-2.5 mm in length), which can quickly absorb a large amount of oil.

Its emergence is important for controlling oil spills because most materials absorb oil and absorb water (such as sawdust), making it impractical to use them to deal with offshore oil spills. The Nanofur has been developed with high-efficiency and large-scale adsorption capacity and easy collection after adsorption.

Hydrophobic materials seem to be a magical existence, and can't help wondering why it has such a special function? Xiaobian will come to you to unravel the mystery of the principle of hydrophobic materials.

Principle of material

Natural hydrophobic materials are everywhere

Preparation

Application of superhydrophobic materials

What role does superhydrophobic material play in real life? Let's take a look at its style.

Simply rubbing or rinsing removes dirt from the surface, and a cleansing coating has been applied to the exterior walls and cars of the National Centre for the Performing Arts.

Waterproof shoes and waterproof electronic products made of hydrophobic materials have been successfully produced and applied.

The super-hydrophobic surface reduces the contact of water droplets with the surface and delays the condensation time of the water droplets. Based on this principle, a superhydrophobic coating is constructed on the inner wall surface of a refrigeration device such as a refrigerator to prevent icing and frost formation.

The phenomenon that fog is condensed on the surface of the glass is very common. The small water droplets condensed on the surface will cause refraction and reflection of light, causing great inconvenience to people's lives. The super-hydrophobic coating prevents the droplets from condensing on the mirror surface to achieve an anti-fog effect.

The African desert is home to a beetle with a number of raised superhydrophobic structures on its back and a hydrophilic valley between the raised structures, which allows the beetle to gain moisture in the arid desert air, thus preparing the bionics Desert water collector.

The air layer captured by the superhydrophobic surface can reduce flow resistance by slipping the boundary layer. Therefore, the construction of super-hydrophobic coating on the hull, submarine and transportation pipeline can effectively reduce the resistance.

Second, hydrogel

There are many natural adhesive materials in the natural world that play the role of glue. Hydrogel is the most typical representative. Inspired by the natural adhesion material hydrogel, MIT engineers have developed a new type of hydrogel material called "smart wound dressing."

This artificial hydrogel contains more than 90% moisture, is transparent and rubbery. Tested and tested, it adheres extremely strongly to a wide variety of material surfaces such as glass and silicon wafers. Its durability is long-lasting and it is used as a candidate for protective coatings. The most interesting thing is its application in the medical and health field.

Xuanhe Zhao, an associate professor at the MIT School of Mechanical Engineering and a designer of hydrogel systems, said that if electronic devices are to be placed close to the human body for medical monitoring and drug delivery, and to achieve very good results, the electronic device can be soft and flexible so that The human environment is consistent. However, ordinary electronic devices are hard and dry, and human skin is soft and wet. The nature of these two systems is quite different. The design of the elastic hydrogel electronics can then be carried out.

The research team implanted the temperature sensor into a large piece of hydrogel and then drilled the drug delivery channel on top to create a “high-tech band-aid”. And “Band-Aid” also integrates many sensors, such as LED lights and electronic devices. The development and application of elastic hydrogel electronic equipment has broad prospects.

What is the term hydrogel? In fact, it is not particularly mysterious. In life, there are often contacts that are not easy to be noticed by us. Frequently eaten jelly, some transparent masks, antipyretic stickers, soft contact lenses, and the transparent colloid applied before the B-ultrasound is a member of its family.

It is a converged network structure that absorbs and holds large amounts of water. Among them are hydrophilic groups or regions that undergo hydration to form a gel structure. The network structure is necessary in the hydrogel because it is necessary to prevent the hydrophilic polymer chains or fragments from being dissolved into the solution. Because of its water solubility, it is not only a research hotspot of swelling network, but also widely used in different fields, such as protein separation, cell embedding, tissue engineering and so on.

Due to the wide variety, there are many classification criteria for hydrogels, including source, cross-linking, degradation performance, response to external stimuli, size structure and functional classification.

Classified by source

Natural hydrogel

Synthetic hydrogel

Classified by cross-linking

Classified by degradation performance

Classification by response to external stimuli

Classified by size structure

The best example of the environmentally responsive hydrogel mentioned is the design of a new hydrogel and elastic hydrogel electronics developed by the MIT team. This environmentally responsive hydrogel will undoubtedly attract more look.

Third, 4D printing

At the 2015 CES conference, Nervous System launched their second dress with the concept of 4D printed “sports dress”, hoping to break through the comfort of clothing. A total of 3212 "parts" are connected by 4709 "rings". The name of the company with different shapes of "parts": Nervous System.

3D printing has not yet been officially popularized, and the concept of 4D printing has been proposed as early as 2013. The so-called 4D printing technology is precisely a material that can be automatically deformed. It can be automatically folded into corresponding shapes according to the design of the product . Is it novel enough to be magical enough! The potential for this morphing function is unlimited, ranging from consumer goods to biomedical practices, from the aerospace industry to the sports world. “You can imagine clothing and shoes that change with the changes in athletes and the environment. The tires can be deformed according to different road conditions, and consumers don’t have to buy different types of tires for different roads.”

How is this anti-day work achieved?

The printing materials used for 4D printing are memory polymer materials, especially slow resilience polyurethane materials. Slow-rebound polyurethane polyether is mainly used in slow-rebound foam. The so-called slow-rebound foam means that after the foam is deformed by external force, the foam does not recover immediately like a normal sponge, but slowly recovers the original shape and has no residue. Deformation, which is what we usually call a memory sponge. This foam has excellent functions such as buffering and sound insulation, and can be applied to seismic, buffering materials and engine noise isolation of aerospace, aviation, and automobiles.

The 4D printed material is programmed to mimic the material so that the material is deformed according to the pre-set time shape. According to Tibbits, let the object be actively produced as a machine, instead of setting the object first and then making it. This 4D printing technology is absolutely disruptive. It not only creates new things that are smart and adaptable, but also completely changes the traditional industrial printing and even the construction industry. If you apply 4D printing technology to the macro level, you can reduce the energy and labor costs of manufacturing.