[ad_1] It’s made using keratin extracted from recycled wool. Keratin is a fibrous protein that’s found in hair, which, of course, has a habit of returning to its natural form. The researchers shaped a single chain of keratin into a spring-like structure. They twisted two of those together and used many such “coiled coils” to […]
Category: material
Researchers create bone-inspired 3D-printed building materials
[ad_1] “Bone is a building,” says Purdue University professor Pablo Zavattieri. “It has these columns that carry most of the load and beams connecting the columns. We can learn from these materials to create more robust 3D-printed materials for buildings and other structures.” The researchers discovered that the “beams” in bones provide more stiffness and […]
MIT scientists accidentally create the blackest material ever
[ad_1] The researchers had actually been experimenting with ways to grow CNTs on electrically conductive materials — such as aluminium — to boost their electrical and thermal properties. The color of the resulting material surprised the team, and they only realized what they had invented after they measured its optical reflectance. The discovery is currently […]
Self-healing 3D-printed gel has a future in robots and medicine
[ad_1] The 3D-printed hydrogel is a dual polymer that’s capable of bending, twisting or sticking together when treated with certain chemicals. One polymer has covalent bonds, which provide strength and structural integrity. The other polymer has ionic bonds, which allow more dynamic behaviors like bending and self-adhesion. Together, the polymers create a material that is […]