Before designing the next generation of soft materials, researchers must first understand how they behave during rapidly changing deformation. In a new study, researchers challenged previous assumptions regarding polymer behavior with newly developed laboratory techniques that measure polymer flow at the molecular level.
This approach may lead to the design of new biomedical, industrial and environmental applications – from polymers that aid in blood clotting to materials that more efficiently extract oil and gas from wells.
The findings are published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Understanding the mechanics of how materials molecularly react to changing flows is critical to developing high-quality materials, the researchers said, and defining a framework for interpreting and describing these properties has eluded scientists for decades.
Read more at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Photo: Chemical and biomolecular engineering researchers Johnny Ching-Wei Lee, left, professor Simon Rogers and collaborators are challenging previous assumptions regarding polymer behavior with their newly developed laboratory techniques that measure polymer flow at the molecular level.
Photo by L. Brian Stauffer