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The research team of Professor Gao Chao of the Department of Polymer Science and Technology of Zhejiang University recently created a new type of fiber that mimics the structure of shells. This fiber has good toughness, high strength, and electrical conductivity. On October 24 this year, the research results were published in Scientific Journals, a well-known scientific journal under the British Natural Publishing Group.
The new fiber, like a human hair, looks bland. But the clothes made of it cannot be penetrated by bullets.
Professor Gao Chao said that the raw materials for making new fibers are graphene and some organic polymer materials.
Graphene is the thinnest kind of material known to man, and it is very firm and hard; its conductivity is also good. In 2004, physicists Andrei Heim and Konstantin Novoselov of the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom succeeded in stripping graphene from graphite in the laboratory, confirming that it can exist alone, and therefore jointly obtaining 2010 Nobel Prize in physics.
Graphene is expected by scientists and has broad application prospects in transistors, transparent electrodes, nanostructures and composite materials, lithium-ion batteries, and supercapacitors. The characteristics of graphene, so that the new fiber has a magical performance.
The magic of the new fiber is also its structure, which is made by mimicking the shell structure.
Professor Gao said that nature is very magical, and the structure of shells is very special. For example, pearl clam shells contain more than 95% of calcium carbonate and a small amount of natural organic matter. The two are a layer of calcium carbonate and a layer of polymer material that are regularly stacked. The scientists call it a "brick-ash structure."
The "brick-ash structure" material is very hard and has a certain degree of toughness (Note, elasticity), tougher than steel and ceramics, harder than plastic, and has a very wide application prospect. Scientists have always wanted to imitate this structure and create new materials. Foreign scientists have spent more than 20 years of efforts, but they can only make centimetre-scale film samples.
The fibres spun out by Professor Gao Chao’s team, like shells, are arranged in a “brick-gray structure†with a layer of graphene organic material. Although they are very small, they can be made into very long lines. Because of the use of special materials and special structures, the strength and toughness of the new fiber are ideal, and it can be conductive, acid and alkali resistant, and is not afraid of water soaking.
This special fiber is used in a wide range of applications. The woven clothes can protect against radiation and static electricity. Because the new fiber is light (only about one-tenth of the weight of the same thick metal wire), a lighter body armor can be made. Good electrical conductivity, can be produced at room temperature, does not need to consume too much energy...
At present, Professor Gao's team is further improving the hardness and toughness of this fiber. Professor Gao Chao said that perhaps in the future, we can really spray liquid like Spider-man and quickly condense into tough new fibers floating between city buildings. Correspondent Pan Yimeng reporter Hu Xinchang
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