Color-Changing Organogel Stretches 46 Times Its Size and Self-Heals

alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: Scientists from Taiwan have developed a new material that can stretch up to 4,600% of its original length before breaking. Even if it does break, gently pressing the pieces together at room temperature allows it to heal, fully restoring its shape and stretchability within 10 minutes.

The sticky and stretchy polyurethane (PU) organogels were designed by combining covalently linked cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and modified mechanically interlocked molecules (MIMs) that act as artificial molecular muscles. The muscles make the gel sensitive to external forces such as stretching or heat, where its color changes from orange to blue based on whether the material is at rest or stimulated. Thanks to these unique properties, the gels hold great promise for next-generation technologies -- from flexible electronic skins and soft robots to anti-counterfeiting solutions. The findings have been published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

Model T-666

[Tablizer]

Shit, they're building an Orange Terminator.

Re:

[OrangAsm]

I almost came when I read this.

Not quite there yet

[PDXNerd]

The gels autonomously self-healed at room temperature, recovering more than 90% of their original strength and stretchability.

It's a neat material, and 90% is a good number but its not 100%. Put this on a robot limb that stretched it and it would quickly lose elasticity.. It also took 10 minutes to fully self-heal. I'm sure there's some good applications for this but anything requiring extreme flexibility will wear this out quickly since a 10% loss in strength after each use isn't great.

Re:Not quite there yet

[excelsior_gr]

The gel was cut and the 10% loss was after healing. A stretch of 46x sounds pretty good, so one could easily desing the application to stay below this maximum strechiness. But even if the gel rips under unforeseen conditions, a short repair in the field that recovers 90% of the functionality soulds awesome compared to what we have now.

not looking forward to eating this...

[berghem]

...as yet another example of potentially dangerous micro-plastics, once it is dumped into a stream or the sea, and it travels through the food chain to humans.

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[piojo]

...as yet another example of potentially dangerous micro-plastics, once it is dumped into a stream or the sea, and it travels through the food chain to humans.

Don't worry about the polyurethane in this material--you'll be too busy eating polyurethane from foam mattresses and cushions.

hold great promise for next-generation tech

[mrbester]

Yeah.

I already possess something that alters shape when stimulated, dramatically increasing its volume and self heals when damaged. I don't have the colour change gene though, so maybe this can be an upgrade.

Re: hold great promise for next-generation tech

[Kelxin]

Man boobs don't count.

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[nevermindme]

No, the people are beautiful, brilliant, wonderful caring individuals, unbelievably family oriented, with a strong group ethos. The problem the ethos walks themselves directly into communism and totalitarianism for the 3-15% that step up to being the local block enforcer and run up the parties structure, really just a power NIMBY Karen. The highly intelligent that do not get along with the system fall into orders corruption and crime that cannot be believed with very high stakes if the party aims their

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[gtall]

Have you ever had an English composition class?

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[PPH]

I can't speak for PP, but in my state, one will recieve a failing grade for denegrating communism in a school writing class.

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[sabbede]

This was invented in Taiwan, where the CCP isn't.

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[sabbede]

Who said that? Taiwan does great work.

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[larryjoe]

Americans seem to think Chinese are stupid, but the evidence shows otherwise.

Ignoring for the moment that this research came from a Taiwanese university and not from China, it doesn't make sense that Americans think that the Chinese are stupid. The recent extreme US measures regarding tariffs, product bans, visa and immigrant scrutiny, and concerns over international military and geopolitical relations only happen because the US considers China to be formidable. Doing all this for a stupid adversary would be stupid.

46X or 4600% ?

[quenda]

I wish morons would stop adding 00% to a multiple. We get it, you failed high school maths, so wanted to be a journalist.

Is stretching 2X a 200% increase?

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[mspohr]

Good point. It drives me crazy too.
Adding extra zeros is just hype.

Silly Putty 2.0!

[sabbede]

Did nobody else see that obvious application? So long as it's non-toxic, it'll be under Christmas trees before long.

Soft robots?

[Shakes Fist]

*Real Doll enters the chat*

It was only a matter of time: flubber

[arielpartners]

life imitates art imitating life: Flubber! (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119137)

Better Targets

[bill_mcgonigle]

I recently got a "plastic" target that changes color and the holes mostly self-heal if you don't use a hollow-point.

Good for plinking but they do wear out eventually.

I didn't even know this material existed before a buddy told me they were on Amazon. Amazing times, for sure.

Heck, I picked up some 100-lb test fishing line the other day that is some sort of braided heavy-chain polyethylene that is 11 times stronger than steel wire at the same size. The company made mechanical spinnerets to mimic spiders' to