"metal rubber"

[phantom power]

Metal Rubber looks like brown plastic wrap, and has some amazing properties, including elasticity. "We can stretch it to about 200 to 300 percent of its original length, and it relaxes back," says Claus. "It's very tough. We can expose it to chemicals. We can put it in jet fuel. We can hit it with acetone. We can boil it in water overnight, and it doesn't mechanically or chemically degrade. We can heat it up to about…700 Fahrenheit. It won't burn. We can drop it down to about…minus 167 degrees Fahrenheit, and it maintains its properties."

To make Metal Rubber, Claus and his team built it molecule by molecule, using a nanotechnology process they call "electrostatic molecular self-assembly," which means that Metal Rubber virtually assembles itself. "Molecular self-assembly is a process that's similar to the way that your bones grow," Claus explains. "Individual molecules are formed layer by layer on a surface."
The team starts with a plastic or glass substrate, or base, that they have given an electric charge, either positive or negative. Then they dip the base alternately into two water-based solutions, one containing plastic molecules that have been given a positive electrical charge, and the other containing plastic molecules with a negative charge. If the base has a positive charge, it goes into the negative molecules first, and they cling to the base, forming a layer only one molecule thick. After the next dipping, into positive molecules, a second ultra thin layer forms. Making Metal Rubber, Claus explains, is like “making a layer cake.”

Once NanoSonic can ramp up production, Claus also expects to see Metal Rubber in artificial muscles for robots, stents and other biomedical products, cars, seat cushions, and even flexible TVs you could carry in your pocket. Metal Rubber™ is a registered trademark of NanoSonic, Inc. This research is registered with the U.S. Patent Office and was funded by NanoSonic, Inc.

http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392354

[DavidDvorkin]

1. Very cool

I hope it can be scaled up appropriately.