Extremely Tough Hydrogel Inspired By Biology

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The creatures that live inside of hot springs work at temperatures of hot coffee. Their proteins inspired the creators of a new hydrogel that don't soften when warmed up but toughen up. Such a material could find usage in protecting motorists or cyclists or in construction.

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Image by Monika Robak from Pixabay

This might sound unbelievable, but extremophiles are quite inspirational for scientists. Extremophiles are creatures that live in a place where you wouldn't like to be for even a moment. But they are quite adapted to that lifestyle. And sometimes they inspire us – just like they inspired a team of Japanese scientists from the Hokkaido University that developed a quite amazing hydrogel.

When you warm up pretty much any polymer in the world it loosens up its structure and softens the monitor or even deforms it. But this hydrogel does the exact opposite. When you warm it up to 60°C it toughens about 1800 times. At room temperature, the material is soft and transparent. Once warmed up it becomes opaque, toughens just like a rock and becomes very durable.

Jian Ping Gong and his colleagues were inspired by proteins that can be found in extremophiles in extremely hot environments. These organisms live in temperatures where your regular creature would boil alive. But their proteins work just find and stay stable and functioning even in very high temperatures.

The scientists developed a cheap and safe hydrogel that is based on a polyacrylate by mixing polyacrylic acid and a solution of calcium acetate. Both are commonly available and used substances. Polyacrylic acid is a normal polymer under normal circumstances and softens when warmed up. But when mixed with calcium acetate it interacts with polyacrylate groups on the surface of the polymer substantially changing the properties of the final material.

When the extremophilic hydrogel is warmed up to a temperature of 60°C it dehydrates, strengthens its ion bindings and becomes a very tough plastic. Not only it is 1800 times tougher than the unwarmed hydrogel it is also 60 times more rigid and 20 times more break-through-durable. When the scientists applied the hydrogel on a material made from glass fiber they got a material that is soft at room temperature. But when they rubbed it against asphalt for 5 seconds at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour it quickly heated up and toughened up. When the scientists looked at it close it barely had any marks from the friction against the asphalt.

The researchers think similar quickly toughening materials could find use as sophisticated protection for anyone in traffic. Or it could be used in windows to absorb heat and keep the insides of buildings cool.

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