Super Strong Nanofiber Developed By Engineers

Super Strong Nanofiber Developed By Engineers

By Shinji Tutoru

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, USA. Engineers were able to create a new type of structural nanofiber which could transform everything that we have around us. The new type of structural nanofiber is strong and tough enough to be used for airplanes, bridges and even body armor and bicycles. It has been featured on the April cover of the American Chemical Society’s journal.

Currently, the newly developed structural nanofiber can replace almost anything that is made out of composites. This new material is a very useful addition to the few materials with demonstrated simultaneously high strength and toughness which are currently being utilized for different applications.

It has always been a known fact that strength comes at the expense of toughness which means the more a material deforms in some way, the less likely it is to break. A good example for that logic is a conventional ceramic plate. It is strong enough to carry dinner to the table but easily shatters to pieces when dropped since it lacks toughness. Another example would be a rubber ball. You can easily bend it out of shape but it won’t break since it is tough but not strong. Normally, it would be safe to say that strength and toughness are mutually exclusive.

Yuris Dzenis and his team of engineers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were able to create an exceptionally thin polyacrilonitrile nanofiber through electrospinning. The material used for it is a synthetic polymer related to acrylic while the process used is done by applying high voltage to a polymer solution until a small jet of liquid ejects. A continuous length of nanofiber is then created with the process. Also, they found out that as they made the nanofiber thinner, it became much stronger and even tougher than before. The new type of nanofiber is expected to be used for a very wide array of known products very soon.

Invention Super Strong Nanofiber
Organization University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Researcher Professor Yuris Dzenis & Team
Field(s) Nanofibers, Nanotechnology, Carbon Nanofibers
Further Information http://newsroom.unl.edu/releases/2013/04/23/

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