Error at IBM lab finds new family of materials for the first time in decades #chemistry
Sometimes errors can lead to new discoveries! The New York Times has a piece outlining the latest discovery in materials.
As a research chemist at an IBM laboratory, Jeannette M. Garcia spends her days mixing and heating chemicals in pursuit of stronger and more easily recyclable plastics. Recently she followed a simple formula that required mixing three components in a beaker. Somehow she missed a step, leaving out a chemical. She returned to find her beaker filled with a hard white plastic that had even frozen the stirrer.
Dr. Garcia tried grinding the mystery material, to no avail. Then she took a hammer to the beaker to free it.
That laboratory error has led to the discovery of a new family of materials that are unusually strong and light, exhibit “self-healing” properties and can be easily reformed to make products recyclable.
The materials — two new types of synthetic polymers — could have transportation uses. Because of their recyclability, they also could have an impact on consumer products, as well as on the industrial packaging for microelectronics components…
…The IBM scientists say that this is the first distinctly new family that has been discovered in several decades.
They said they had not yet named the new family, which they have code-named “Titan” and “Hydro.” The materials are not yet ready for commercial use, but the scientists said they had already begun working with several universities on composite applications that could have a significant impact on manufacturing and fabrication in the fields of transportation, aerospace and microelectronics.
The materials are known as thermosets because they are formed using a heating process. Their strength comes from their three-dimensional network of chemical bonds. The polymers have the rigidity of bones, one of the strongest biological materials, and can be made as much as 50 percent stronger by blending them in composite form with materials like carbon nanotubes. They also tend to perform better than other types of polymers under high temperatures.
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