"Impossible" 2D material is light as plastic and stronger than steel

cough -reverse engineered alien tech- cough


Marching forward into an uncertain future this material may prove to be as earth changing as plastics.

 MIT scientists say they’ve developed a new production method that allows polymers to form 2D sheets while keeping their strength intact. The team started with melamine as the monomer, which has a structure of carbon and nitrogen rings. In a solution exposed to just the right conditions, these molecules grow sideways into disk shapes, which then stack on top of each other, with hydrogen bonds holding the layers together.
“Instead of making a spaghetti-like molecule, we can make a sheet-like molecular plane, where we get molecules to hook themselves together in two dimensions,” said Michael Strano, senior author of the study. “This mechanism happens spontaneously in solution, and after we synthesize the material, we can easily spin-coat thin films that are extraordinarily strong.”

The team calls the material 2DPA-1, and it has a few impressive properties. Although it’s extremely thin and lightweight, the polymer has a yield strength that’s twice that of steel, and it takes up to six times more force to deform it than bulletproof glass. It’s also completely impermeable to gases and liquids

Think of it. If a cost effective production method is found....

Bulletproof everything.

New aircraft.

Building materials.

Nigh indestructible Seagoing vessels.

Sky is the limit.

Spacetravel may become an everyday thing.

a reply to: dashen

Good no more cheap ass plastic shopping bags that tear causing my 12 pack to break on the side walk in front of the beer cave! 👍🏾

It would be interesting to know about its thermal conductivity. After all, this is one of the key moments in the aviation and space construction. If the material can withstand high temperatures, then this is a huge step forward.

Does anyone have information about this?

a reply to: dashen

Is this the same as graphene?

If not, what is the difference?

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Graphene is a carbon crystal structure. Yet is brittle in large applications

This is a 2d polymer which has ionic bonds along a 2d surface which is a novel discovery and has macroscopic applications and is mass-producable in the short term it would seem.

a reply to: dashen

Have we had it since 1947? <cough>

Yes. Very impressive. Could have application as a form of armor plate for combat vehicles as well.

Cheers

a reply to: dashen

The government will probably use it to block out the f'n sun.

So that happiness can't be found in it's warmth.

im sorry to sound like a doubting thomas.

but how much you want to bet this will be the last we ever hear about it (or only a little more will come out at best) and NEVER see it used in commercial application

hell be surprised if we ever see it in something limited and "secret" project.

like many great ideas for something stronger, lighter and the two biggest thing big business hates.

a. cheaper
b. longer life/ usage life than materials the currently use

both cut into profits

just saying

scrougner

I hear an old Laugh-in comedy show Marty Feldman doing a German accent:

I vonder how scheets of zis will do in zee fire?

We are describing something that looks to me might not bear high heat conditions very well, but will still be very usable. I look forward to things like airplane/flying machines/drones being more lightweight. Sturdy designs seem likely.

originally posted by: dashen
cough -reverse engineered alien tech- cough


Marching forward into an uncertain future this material may prove to be as earth changing as plastics.

 MIT scientists say they’ve developed a new production method that allows polymers to form 2D sheets while keeping their strength intact. The team started with melamine as the monomer, which has a structure of carbon and nitrogen rings. In a solution exposed to just the right conditions, these molecules grow sideways into disk shapes, which then stack on top of each other, with hydrogen bonds holding the layers together.
“Instead of making a spaghetti-like molecule, we can make a sheet-like molecular plane, where we get molecules to hook themselves together in two dimensions,” said Michael Strano, senior author of the study. “This mechanism happens spontaneously in solution, and after we synthesize the material, we can easily spin-coat thin films that are extraordinarily strong.”

The team calls the material 2DPA-1, and it has a few impressive properties. Although it’s extremely thin and lightweight, the polymer has a yield strength that’s twice that of steel, and it takes up to six times more force to deform it than bulletproof glass. It’s also completely impermeable to gases and liquids

Think of it. If a cost effective production method is found....

Bulletproof everything.

New aircraft.

Building materials.

Nigh indestructible Seagoing vessels.

Sky is the limit.

Spacetravel may become an everyday thing.

originally posted by: NightSkyeB4Dawn
a reply to: dashen

Is this the same as graphene?

If not, what is the difference?

Graphene is carbon atoms and nothing else.

This has Nitrogen atoms in the lattice.

a reply to: Justoneman

along with (using this requirement as an example) not every material to be effective , efficient and practical has to be "heat resistant/fireproof"

look at current cardboard shipping boxes and the air "pillows" used to ship things every day all over the world
they are not "fireproof" but are (currently) the best things doing what they are doing.

most clothes are fire "resistant" but sure as hell can burn/melt when exposed to extreme heat.
but we use the clothes for EVERYTHING and not say they are bad/economically not viable/ not usable tech.
unless the REQUIREMENT is for high temp and fire protection

hell alot of "fireproof" things may have cores, supports INTERNAL that are not fire resistant but the outer coating is.


my point is some arguments against items (like this) is because they put some "requirement" on it that is either not applicable, not needed to do the job, and/or is part of something that with something else added or over it WILL do what the requirement is.

scrounger

a reply to: dashen

High strength, light weight, and "completely impermeable to gases and liquids".

Wondering if maybe, just maybe, we've developed a material strong enough, and light enough to utilize in the construction of vacuum lifting cells for "next-generation" airships?

a reply to: dashen

It is not biodegradable, and it is a xenobiotic polymer, hence a microplastic, the ones that pollute your oceans.

Impressive as it may look to you, it just solves a minor problem (structural and mechanical ones), yet it introduces a major problem: pollution.

Didn't Henry Ford discover something similar back when he first started making cars and it was made from hemp oil residues?

originally posted by: Sovaka
Didn't Henry Ford discover something similar back when he first started making cars and it was made from hemp oil residues?

^^This

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

I wonder what else they might "cough have.

originally posted by: vNex92
a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

I wonder what else they might "cough have.

hopefully better condoms.

Hydrogen gas tanks. That would be something.

P

a reply to: dashen

Looking forward to impenetrable FEMA coffins for everyone.

a reply to: dashen

I looked at the article.
How is a physical article able to be 2D?

It sounds good. But isn't it really 3D?
Just to be clear, I understand that the structure is one atom in thickness, but it still has thickness.

And how strong is a steel sheet that is one atom thick, since they are comparing the strength of this new material to steel?