Researchers at the University of Munich Tech have developed a material that can be used continuously in the presence of fuel, once the fuel runs out of its own, it is expected to ease plastic And the increasing number of e-waste.
We usually hope that the material has good durability, but when we do not need them and hope they can completely disappear, rather than constantly fill the garbage dump.Now, the Munich University of Technology researchers have developed a Fuel can continue to use the case, once the fuel will be used up their own decomposition of the material, is expected to ease the increasing number of plastic and electronic waste.
The vast majority of man-made materials need to meet the conditions for continued use, but they are cumbersome to deal with them.With the biological process of inspiration, the University of Munich (TUM) researchers are developing energy depletion of 'dead' material, Can make the drug release system, even the electronic products and package Material, according to the need for self-destruction.
If an animal or plant can not replenish energy through food or sunlight, it will die and break down, but the artificial matter can not be exchanged with its environment for such energy, so it can maintain its shape for a long time, and when we finally want to deal with it, Like the process of recycling to consume more energy, and this is not the most effective process.
"So far, most of the man-made material is chemically stable: it is necessary to break it down into the original components and have to spend a lot of energy," says JobBoekhoven, the lead author of the study. "Nature does not produce rubbish, In contrast, biological cells continue to synthesize new molecules from regenerated cells, and a portion of these molecules are assembled into larger structures, the so-called supramolecular assembly, which forms the structural components of cells. This dynamic collection stimulates We develop the kind of material that can handle your own when it is not needed.
To mimic these natural systems, the TUM team created a free movement at the beginning, and when it was added 'fuel', it could be assembled into a molecular mixture of hydrogels, which were in the form of high-energy molecules called carbodiimide When the fuel is finally used, the hydrogel is broken down into its original molecules, so it can be set by controlling the amount of fuel that is given from the start of the control. Destroy the program.
In a lab test, the team creates materials with a life expectancy of several minutes or hours, and after they have died and dissolved, the process can be restarted by adding another batch of fuel.
The researchers claim that in the short term, this technique can be used as a targeted drug delivery system in which the spherical structure can carry the drug around the body and then automatically dissolve and release its payload where it is needed, as well as assemble it into Tissue engineering scaffold to help the body heal, once the body's own cells take over its work to break down immediately.
The team said plastic or electronic equipment is expected to be made of self-destructing material to prevent it from clogging the landfill, such as water soluble or heated fusible 'transient' electronic components, but adding a programmable time delay Is a welcome supplement.
This study has been published in the journal NatureCommunications.