Cosmic concrete developed from space dust and astronaut blood
Sep 2021, phys.org
A common protein from blood plasma — human serum albumin — could act as a binder for simulated moon or Mars dust to produce a concrete-like material. The resulting novel material, termed AstroCrete, is a concrete-like material made of extra-terrestrial dust along with the blood, sweat and tears of astronauts. Scientists found that incorporating urea — which is a biological waste product that the body produces and excretes through urine, sweat and tears — could further increase the compressive strength by over 300%.
Note this is not the spit-bricks theorized by the Graphene Center at Manchester, which are related to their
Concretene, a concrete-like mixture that uses graphene.
via University of Manchester: Aled D. Roberts et al, Blood, sweat and tears: extraterrestrial regolith biocomposites with in vivo binders, Materials Today Bio (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.mtbio.2021.100136
Wood
Pioneering new process creates versatile moldable wood
Oct 2021, phys.org
After extracting the lignin—a polymer which binds the cell walls inside wood that give it strength—which softens it, and then closing the fibers via evaporation, the research team re-swelled the wood by "shocking" it with water.
"The rapid water-shock process forms a distinct partially open, wrinkled cell wall structure that provides space for compression as well as the ability to support high strain, allowing the material to be easily folded and molded".
"The resulting 3D-Molded Wood is six-times stronger than the starting wood and comparable to widely used lightweight materials like aluminum alloys."
via University of Bristol: Shaoliang Xiao et al, Lightweight, strong, moldable wood via cell wall engineering as a sustainable structural material, Science (2021). DOI: 10.1126/science.abg9556
Researchers make hardened wooden knives that slice through steak
Oct 2021, phys.org
- Makes wood 23 times harder, and a knife made from the material is nearly three times sharper than a stainless-steel dinner table knife
- Can produce wooden nails as sharp as conventional steel nails but unaffected by rusting
- Partially delignification is the first step (get all the lingin out), then heat and pressurize it to get all the water out, making it more dense; last step is to coat it in mineral oil for general protection
- Made by boiling the wood at 100°C in a bath of chemicals, which could potentially be reused from batch to batch, whereas ceramics requires heating above 1,000°C
via University of Maryland: Teng Li, Hardened Wood as a Renewable Alternative to Steel and Plastic, Matter (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2021.09.020
New lignin based material to replace fossil plastics and adhesives
Nov 2021, phys.org
I thought this was interesting because the hardened wood mentioned above removes the lignin and uses only the cellulose. This one is lingin-based. Closing the loop.
via Stockholm University: Adrian Moreno et al, Catalyst-Free Synthesis of Lignin Vitrimers with Tunable Mechanical Properties: Circular Polymers and Recoverable Adhesives, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2021). DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c17412
Using fungus feeding on a woody waste product to create living building blocks
Dec 2021, phys.org
They feed wood waste to the fungus Ganoderma, which grows to almost completely fill the shape of its container, and which is still alive when put to use, so that it can be attached to others by "growing together".
"Functional macro-objects"
via Columbia University, Ecovative Design and MIT: Ross M. McBee et al, Engineering living and regenerative fungal–bacterial biocomposite structures, Nature Materials (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-021-01123-y
Windows
Scientists invent energy-saving glass that 'self-adapts' to heating and cooling demand
Dec 2021, phys.org
Vanadium dioxide nanoparticles composite, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and low-emissivity coating. No electrical components.
During summer, the glass suppresses solar heating (near infrared light), while boosting radiative cooling (long-wave infrared)—a natural phenomenon where heat emits through surfaces towards the cold universe—to cool the room. In the winter, it does the opposite to warm up the room.
via Nanyang Technological University: Shancheng Wang et al, Scalable thermochromic smart windows with passive radiative cooling regulation, Science (2021). DOI: 10.1126/science.abg0291
New research introduces adaptable smart window design that can heat or cool a house
Jan 2022, phys.org
"PCM-based tuneable low-e glass panels"
We don't think about it much I bet, but windows are a huge part of the energy problem. You don't notice it because it's not like it's an open hole in the wall letting all the cold air into your house. You can't exactly feel it, because it's happening at a rate too small for you to detect, but it's there. The air in a room on the other of a window is getting much colder much faster than the air on the other side of an insulated wall. You just can't compare - windows suck at blocking the temperature. The more windows you have and the worse their insulation value (from having less panes or damaged seals), the more energy there is pouring out of that part of your building envelope. Luckily there's a lot of interesting work being done in this area.
Smart windows -- they are tunable, so you can select which part of the sunlight you want to let pass. In the winter it can absorb the infrared, in the summer it can reflect it, and all by simply re-tuning the frequency of the material. Meanwhile, the visible part is unchanged. I imagine these advances in smart envelope science will be an essential part of new "sustainable" design projects from here out.
via University of Pittsburgh: Nathan Youngblood et al, Reconfigurable Low-Emissivity Optical Coating Using Ultrathin Phase Change Materials, ACS Photonics (2021). DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.1c01128
Mandatory Graphene News
Researchers move closer to controlling two-dimensional graphene
Nov 2021, phys.org
Doped graphene. Doping controls the flow of electricity by injecting electron-adjusting dopants to introduce either negatively charged electrons or positively charged "holes" where electrons used to be. Doping for silicon doesn't work for graphene, but there's a new way to do it:
One promising direction is to alter graphene's electronic and optical properties by changing the pattern of the tungsten oxyselenide, and to imprint electrical circuits directly on the graphene itself. The team is also working to integrate the doped material into novel photonic devices, with potential applications in transparent electronics, telecommunications systems, and quantum computers.
via Columbia University: Min Sup Choi et al, High carrier mobility in graphene doped using a monolayer of tungsten oxyselenide, Nature Electronics (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-021-00657-y
Nanomaterial 'aerographene' used to create extremely powerful pumps
Nov 2021, phys.org
More graphene things:
New method for the generation of controllable electrical explosions, repeatedly heating and cooling the air contained inside to very high temperatures in an extremely short period of time. Theoretically, it only takes 450 grams of this material to lift an elephant. This enables extremely powerful pumps, compressed air applications or sterilizing air filters in miniature.
via Kiel University: Fabian Schütt et al, Electrically powered repeatable air explosions using microtubular graphene assemblies, Materials Today (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.mattod.2021.03.010
Origami, kirigami inspire mechanical metamaterials designs
Nov 2021, phys.org
Where there's graphene, there's origami:
"Origami and kirigami are, by nature, mechanical metamaterials, because their properties are mainly determined by how the crease patterns and/or cuts are made and just slightly depend on the material that folds the origami or kiragami," said author Hanqing Jiang.
Nothing is new, no matter how new it sounds -- Two-dimensional materials? Materials that are so thin, only one atom thick, that they behave in ways completely unknown to science, and have made us create a new branch of science just to help us understand them?
That's what graphene did when it hit the scene in 2004. But it turns out origami and kirigami have been 2-D the whole time!
via American Institute of Physics: "Mechanical metamaterials based on origami and kirigami" Applied Physics Reviews, aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/5.0051088
The Future - Ubiquitous Intelligence
Creating an artificial material that can sense, adapt to its environment
Nov 2021, phys.org
"Developed an artificial material, called a metamaterial, which can respond to its environment, independently make a decision, and perform an action not directed by a human being."
The mechanical design of their new artificial material incorporates three main functions also displayed by materials found in nature—sensing; information processing; and actuation, or movement.
Some examples of these natural materials include the quick reaction of a Venus fly trap's leafy jaws to capture an insect, chameleons changing the color of their skin to blend into their surroundings, and pine cones adjusting their shapes in response to changes in air humidity, Huang said.
The material uses a computer chip to control or manipulate the processing of information that's needed to perform the requested actions, then uses the electrical power to convert that energy into mechanical energy. The researchers' next step is to implement their idea in a real-world environment.
via University of Missouri and University of Chicago: Yangyang Chen et al, Realization of active metamaterials with odd micropolar elasticity, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26034-z
Post Script:
Sustainable, biodegradable, vegan glitter—from your fruit bowl
Nov 2021, phys.org
Using structural color, and old trick used in biology (like butterfly wings), but new to industrial color technology, this thing uses cellulose nanocrystal films, and can be produced at the industrial scale.
Biodegradable glitter sounds like an oxymoron, but I'll take it.
via University of Cambridge: Silvia Vignolini, Large-scale fabrication of structurally coloured cellulose nanocrystal films and effect pigments, Nature Materials (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-021-01135-8
