(NHI Nanoblog) A film made of clay and polymers might make some aluminum foil packaging—and flat soda—a thing of the past.
Jaime Grunlan, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University, presented new research on the material this week at the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif.
To the naked eye, the film is transparent. But under a major microscope, the structure of the material emerges, looking just like bricks (the clay) and mortar (the polymer). Hence, the shorthand name.
Compounds based on nanomaterials, like the film, leverage super-small particles to create products with amazing properties. These materials can make bike frames lighter and stronger and sunscreen more transparent on the skin, as well as new medical instruments and medicines that can save lives.
There is broad agreement that nanomaterials hold great promise for a wide variety of applications. But shrinking these substances can change their properties, and scientists are struggling to figure out whether, how and why that shift can make them dangerous in the process.
In an ACS press release, Grunlan said the coating, which helps keep oxygen out of whatever it covers, could be used to keep food fresher. That could mean everything from soda bottles to military-issue Meals Ready to Eat, or MREs, could sit on shelves longer. The coating improves plastic wrapping and also protects better than foil.
In a press conference, Grunlan said the material, in a different recipe, could also be used for synthetic skin or making fabric fire-resistant, by coating each fiber (you can see a video of the entire event here).
The material incorporates a type of clay that’s used for life-sized bricks, and an assortment of polymers. The finished product is about 70 percent percent clay and is less than 100 nanometers thick (one nanometer is about a billionth of a meter).
Other applications, according to the release, include tires and flexible electronics. The material might also help footballs stay inflated longer, or make sufaces more scratch-resistant.
“You effectively don’t even know it’s there, except for the barrier effect,” Grunlan said.
Nano-brick bike tires?