New revolutionary material can be worked like glass
24 Nov 2011
A common feature of sailboards, aircraft and electronic circuits is that they all contain resins used for their lightness, strength and resistance.
However, once cured, these resins can no longer be reshaped. Only certain inorganic compounds, including glass, offered this possibility until now.
Combining such properties in a single material seemed impossible until a team led by Ludwik Leibler, CNRS researcher at the Laboratoire ''Matière Molle et Chimie'' (CNRS/ESPCI ParisTech), developed a new class of compounds capable of this remarkable feat.
Repairable and recyclable, this novel material can be shaped at will and in a reversible manner at high temperature. And, quite surprisingly, it also retains certain properties specific to organic resins and rubbers: it is light, insoluble and difficult to break.
Inexpensive and easy to produce, this material could be used in numerous industrial applications, particularly in the automobile, aeronautics, building, electronics and leisure sectors.
This work was published on 18 November 2011 in Science.
Replacing metals by lighter but just as efficient materials is a necessity for numerous industries, such as aeronautics, car manufacturing, building, electronics and sports industry.
Due to their exceptional mechanical strength and thermal and chemical resistance, composite materials based on thermosetting resins are currently the most suitable.
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