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US scientists develop ultralight polymer twice as strong as steel

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created a new, ultra-low-density, two-dimensional polymer material that is twice as strong as high-grade steel. This was reported on Wednesday, February 2 in the journal Nature.

It is noted that scientists have created plastic that can be used as load-bearing structures of buildings, and in the future in other areas.

“As a rule, plastic is never considered as a suitable material for building load-bearing structures, but the material we have created can be used in this way. Its unusual properties will significantly expand the areas where polymers will be used in the future, ”the publication notes.

The popularity of polymers is associated with the easy changeability of their mechanical and physical properties, which allows the use of the same raw materials for the manufacture of flexible rubber bands and high-strength plastic structures, the magazine says.

At the same time, polymers have a chaotic or amorphous structure, they are vulnerable to certain types of mechanical loads and other influences.

In the course of the experiments, scientists from MIT created a material with a unique two-dimensional structure that causes its constituent molecules to combine into a kind of grid without any intervention from scientists, thanks to which the polymer has a strength that is twice that of the best grades of steel.

At the end of January, the head of the educational laboratory of the department of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), Vladimir Podguzov, told Izvestia that work was underway to create bullet trains on a magnetic cushion. The developers called the new trains “maglev”.

The project to create “maglevs” was curtailed in the early 1990s, the head of the laboratory explained. However, in 2020, work on the creation of levitating trains resumed.

Source: IZ

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