- Researchers have developed a way to engineer pseudo-bonds in a polymer material.
- Their work represents a new way of solidifying materials without relying on permanent chemical bonds.
- Like an epoxy, the material serves as a strong and stable filler—but can also be dissolved and reused, as though untangling a ball of yarn.
Composite adhesives like epoxy resins are excellent tools for joining and filling materials including wood, metal, and concrete. But there’s one problem: once a composite sets, it’s there forever. Now there’s a better way. Researchers have developed a simple polymer that serves as a strong and stable filler that can later be dissolved. It works like a tangled ball of yarn that, when pulled, unravels into separate fibers.
A new study led by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) outlines a way to engineer pseudo-bonds in materials. Instead of forming chemical bonds, which is what makes epoxies and other composites so tough, the chains of molecules entangle in a way that is fully reversible. The research is published in the journal Advanced Materials.
“This is a brand new way of solidifying materials. We open a new path to composites that doesn’t go with the traditional ways,” said Ting Xu, a faculty senior scientist at Berkeley Lab and one of the lead authors for the study.
Read more on the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab website
Image: Silica nanoparticles affixed with a distribution of polystyrene chains (purple) self-assemble into hexagonal lattices. Depending on how the chains are organized on the particle surface, they tangle together (purple) or unravel (blue) when compressed.
Credit: Tiffany Chen; Ting Xu
