In many industrial and pharmaceutical fields, as well as in scientific research, there is an urgent need for materials with special properties that are both strong and light as feathers. Now, a research team at the University of Bayreuth in Germany has developed a polymer fiber with this characteristic. The research team, together with partners in Germany, China and Switzerland, demonstrated the characteristics of the polymer fiber material.
Andreas Greiner, director, professor and doctor of the Department of Polymer Chemistry Research at Bayreuth University, said: "We have found that it is easy to use well-established high-tech processes in the industry and polymers available worldwide to produce this It is a kind of fiber. A fiber is as thin as a hair, lighter than a fruit fly, but very strong, and can lift an object weighing 30 grams (equivalent to the weight of 150,000 fruit flies) without being torn. . The high tensile strength test of this type of fiber further revealed that it has extremely high toughness, which means that each fiber can absorb a lot of energy. "Other teams involved in this research also have Yulixi Center (Forschungszentrum Jülich), Halle-Wittenberg Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Fraunhofer Institute for Materials and Systems Microstructure (IMWS), Aachen University of Technology (Rheinisch-Westf lische Technische Hochschule Aachen University, Jiangxi Normal University and ETH Zurich Zürich).
Due to the unique properties of the polymer fiber, it is suitable for technical components exposed to high load environments, and can also be used for various innovative applications in various fields, such as textile industry, medical technology, automotive engineering or aviation industry. In addition, the polymer fiber can be easily recycled. Greiner said: "We are convinced that our research results have opened the door to a new, forward-looking material that will soon be practically applied in industry. In polymer science, our fibers can be high-performance functional materials Further research and development to provide valuable services. "
The basic chemical composition of this kind of promising fiber is polyacrylonitrile. A fiber with a diameter of about 40,000 nanometers is composed of up to 4000 ultra-thin fibrils. Such fibers are connected by a small amount of additives. Three-dimensional X-ray images show that the fibrils in the fibers are almost all arranged longitudinally along the same direction. Seema Agarwal, Ph.D. and professor of polymer scientists at Bayreuth University, said: "We prepared such multi-fibril fibril polyacrylonitrile fibers in the electrospinning laboratory of Bayreuth University and tested its performance and performance extensively. , Found to have unique strength and extremely high toughness. "