#polymers
Credit: American Chemical Society
By Idha ValeurYou can now 3D print lithium-ion batteries in any shape.
Lithium-ion batteries are normally either cylindrical or rectangular shaped, which forces manufacturers to dedicate a certain size and place for the battery in its design. This way of making electronic devices such as laptops and mobile phones may cause a waste of both space and options to branch out with design.
InACS Applied Energy Materials, researchers present their method of 3D printing which can create the whole structural device, including the battery and with all the electronic components – in almost any shape.
Since the polymers used for printing, like poly(lactic acid) (PLA) are not ionic conductors, the researchers infused PLA with an electrolyte solution as well as adding graphene into the anode or cathode to boost the battery’s electrical conductivity.
Showing the capacity of the printed battery, the team printed a bracelet with an integrated battery. As of now, the battery could only power the green LED for approximately 60 seconds – making the battery circa two orders of magnitude lower than already commercially available batteries. Although this makes the battery capacity too low to use at the moment, the researchers have multiple ideas to fix the low capacity such as, replacing the PLA materials with 3D printable pastes.
20 years ago, Stephanie Kwolek became only the fourth woman to enter the US National Inventors Hall of Fame, 30 years after she first synthesised a material for the purpose of making strong but light tyres.
That material is now used in more than 200 different applications. It protects undersea optical cables, suspends bridges with ultra-strong ropes and creates super-taut drumheads. But Kevlar is perhaps best known for saving countless lives as a protective material in bulletproof vests and helmets.
Kwolek beneath a picture of Nylon inventor Wallace Carothers © Chemical Heritage Foundation
Kwolek, a chemist at American company DuPont, created a solution of para-phenylenediamine and terephthaloyl chloride in 1965 that was ‘cloudy, opalescent upon being stirred and of low viscosity’. Polymer solutions are normally syrupy, but Kwolek’s was thin and watery.
DuPont technician Charles Smullen refused to run the solution through a spinneret, the apparatus used to spin a polymer solution into a fibre, saying it was too watery and interpreting the opalescence as particles that would clog the machine. Thankfully, Kwolek was persistent, and Smullen agreed to spin the fibre.
‘We spun it, and it span beautifully,’ Kwolek beamed in a 2012 interview. ‘It was very strong and stiff – unlike anything we had made before. I knew that I had made a discovery. I didn’t shout “Eureka!” but I was very excited, as was the whole laboratory excited, and management was excited, because we were looking for something new. Something different. And this was it.’
The high tensile strength-to-weight ratio of Kevlar is five times that of steel. When layered together, it can absorb the velocity of shrapnel or a bullet, distributing its force across the fibres instead of being pierced. It is used in tennis rackets, skis, boats, ropes and cables and, as first intended, in tyres.
Kwolek, who also developed the nylon rope trick classroom demonstration, died in 2014 at the age of 90, having lived to see her invention take more forms than she could have possibly anticipated. Kwolek’s was a rare discovery with perhaps the most rewarding property a material can possess. As she put it, ‘I don’t think there’s anything like saving someone’s life to bring you satisfaction and happiness.’
By Simon Frost.
For my final line-up I would love to use some smart fabrics and after having a look around I found a lot that I think would be great to use.
Temperature sensitive fabrics
Clothings main job is to keep up warm or cool so it makes sense that the smart material industry is looking into making fabrics that can regulate body temperature. These types of fabrics are mostly seen in windbreakers and beanies.
Junor Campbell design and development manager for Mountain Designs says its hats, beanies and jackets are often treated with paraffins.“Paraffin changes its character. As you get hot it becomes more liquid and all that heat to pass out,” says Campbell. “As the body gets cold it solidifies and keeps heat back with the wearer.”
Other fabrics that are also starting to appear are ones that conduct electricity to monitor your body temperature but because they are still so new they are very expensive but one company that wants to launch in this market with a more reasonable price range, Australian Wool Innovators, want to make socks that will be able to keep your toes toastie at 30 degrees centigrade but also feel like any other sock and being washable.Odour Eaters
There are also fabrics that are being developed that are suited for more health reasons, fabrics with anti-bacterial treatments. Materials that are treated with silver seem to be working best and the garment that seems to be best for this type of fabric is underwear, you can treat underwear with anti-bacterial but it washed out but they have found that if it has silver added to it, the same effect happens but it is permanent. Microencapsulation technology, which allows a whole swathe of substances including aloe vera, vitamins or insect repellents to be added to the fabric, is creating endless possibilities.Medical Material
Microencapsulated fabrics is best for medical treatments, mainly in the natural health sector. Materials with vitamin E are great for scarring and theres also a good market in materials for diabetes and improving circulation. There has been development in smart fabrics called bio-therapeutic textiles where they look to isolating the chemical properties of gold fly maggots that are known to combat wound infection, this could be extremely useful when it comes to dressings and bandages. For electrically conductive smart fabrics there is a much greater medical use, for example, in hospitals they could be used to create life vests that would monitor your heart rate, ECG and body temperature and you could have every patient wearing one with the results all going back to the nurses in a central office to be monitored. Though it would be a very long time until this could be seen as a reality because this type of technology is still extremely expensive.
Nobel Prize Awards 2014
This year’s latest Nobel Prize winners have been announced, as scientists and researchers across the world are recognised for their outstanding discoveries.
The winner for chemistry category went to 3 researchers for improving the resolution of optical microscopes. Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell and William Moerner used fluorescence to extend the limits of the light microscope.
While the Nobel Prize for Physics celebrated their success for the invention of blue light emitting diodes (LEDs) made in the early 1990s.
To hear more about the winners visit: http://bit.ly/1vQXdaQ
In other news:
- Crumpled graphene could power future stretchable electronics
- New cracks in Hunterston reactor
- Positive step forward in bio-nanotechnology as it is set to have endless possibilities
- 3D printed ears for children with deformities
To find out more on material science, packaging and engineering news, visit our website IOM3 or follow us on Twitter @MaterialsWorld for regular news updates.