Using a novel polymerization process, MIT chemical engineers have created a new material that is stronger than steel and as light as plastic, and can be easily manufactured in large quantities. The new material is a 2D polymer that self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers, which form 1D, spaghetti-like chains. Until now, scientists had believed it was impossible to induce polymers to form 2D sheets. Such a material could be used as a lightweight, durable coating for car parts or cell phones, or as a building material for bridges or other structures. “We don’t usually think of plastics as being something that you could use to support a building, but with this material, you can enable new things. It has very unusual properties and we’re very excited about that.” The new material’s elastic modulus — a measure of how much force it takes to deform a material — is 4-6x greater than that of bulletproof glass. Its yield strength, or how much force it takes to break the material, is 2x that of steel, even though the material has 15% the density of steel. An important aspect of these new polymers is that they are readily processable in solution, which will facilitate numerous new applications where high strength to weight ratio is important, such as new composite or diffusion barrier materials. Another key feature of 2DPA-1 is that it is impermeable to gases. While other polymers are made from coiled chains with gaps that allow gases to seep through, the new material is made from monomers that lock together like LEGOs, and molecules cannot get between them. “This could allow us to create ultrathin coatings that can completely prevent water or gases from getting through. This kind of barrier coating could be used to protect metal in cars and other vehicles, or steel structures.”

Unclear if more plastic use is helpful, but if the alternative is more concrete, that’s not great either. And if we’re extra lucky, it helps to prevent corrosion at scale, which would give all structures a much longer lifetime.

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