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— Graphene lights up with new possibilities — The future brightened for organic chemistry when researchers at Rice University found a highly controllable way to attach organic molecules to pristine graphene, making the miracle…
— Scientists develop brand new class of small molecules through innovative chemistry — Inspired by natural products, scientists on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have created a new class of small molecules with the potential to serve as a rich foundation…
— New 'smart' material could help tap medical potential of tissue-penetrating light — Scientists are reporting development and successful initial testing of the first practical 'smart' material that may supply the missing link in efforts to use in medicine a form of…
— Formaldehyde: Poison could have set the stage for the origins of life — Formaldehyde, a poison and a common molecule throughout the universe, is likely the source of the solar system's organic carbon solids - abundant in both comets and asteroids. Scientists…
— Exploring the possibilities for zeolites — Some people collect stamps and coins, but when it comes to sheer utility, few collections rival the usefulness of Rice University researcher Michael Deem's collection of 2.6 million…
— Microreactors: Small scale chemistry could lead to big improvements for biodegradable polymers — Using a small block of aluminium with a tiny groove carved in it, a team of researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Polytechnic Institute…
— Small code change, big effect — Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have developed a new method which enables researchers to label any protein of their choice with…
— New imaging technique provides rapid, high-definition chemistry — With intensity a million times brighter than sunlight, a new synchrotron-based imaging technique offers high-resolution pictures of the molecular composition of tissues with unprecedented…
Plastics that are ten times more stretchable
Researchers in China report the first successful 'electrospinning' of a type of plastic widely used in automobiles and electronics. The high-tech process, which uses an electric charge to turn polymers into thin fibres in the presence of electricity, produced plastic mats that can stretch ten times more without breaking than the original material and could lead to new uses for the plastic, they say. Their study will appear in the 10 June issue of American Chemical Society' journal Macromolecules.
In the new study, Zhao-Xia Guo and colleagues point out that the original plastic, called polyoxymethylene (POM), is an engineering staple known for its metal-like hardness, light weight, and resistance to chemicals. However, the material is relatively brittle, limiting its applications. Although many different types of plastics have been electrospun into fibres with extended uses and properties, researchers have been unable to spin POM into fibres until now, the researchers say.
They report that POM could be turned into nano-sized fibres - thousands of times thinner than the width of a single hair - after first dissolving it in a solution called HFIP and then undergoing electrospinning. The process resulted in POM mats with improved stretchability, or ductility, high porosity, and high surface area. Such features could extend the plastic's uses to a wide range of industrial, electronic and medical applications, the researchers say.
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