According to the latest issue of Science Materials, Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a new process for the production of ultrafine fibers known as gel electrospinning. The resulting nanoscale fibers have exceptional strength And toughness, or can be a new choice of armor and nanocomposites.
According to Gregory Ritchiech, a professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, materials science is well balanced, and researchers often see a corresponding decrease in other properties as they increase a material's properties. Strength and toughness are Such a pair of contradictory body.When the higher the strength of the material, the lower the toughness, the mechanism of its energy absorption is destroyed and more easily broken.And gel electrostatic spinning technology to solve this balance mechanism.
The new technology improves the traditional gel spinning technology by adding electricity, and the resulting polyethylene microfibers can match or exceed the properties of some of the strongest fibers that Kevlar and Dyneema can make for body armor The newly made gel electrospun polyethylene fibers have similar strength, but higher toughness and lower density than carbon and ceramic fibers widely used in composites.
Unlike traditional gel spinning processes, the new technology uses a single-stage process instead of a multi-stage process, resulting in fibers with higher degree of elongation, which are only a few hundred nanometers in diameter instead of the traditional 15 micron. Instead of mechanical pulling to make the fibers made thinner, resulting in unique properties.Ratlich said that the fibers made by the new process in the future can be used to create more lightweight and strong protective materials.
