USA: A revolutionary metallic material was created with elastic properties that could be used as a battery

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst were inspired by Nature to create a new, programmable super “metallic”. A team of researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst has developed a new rubber-like solid substance with amazing properties: it can absorb and release very large amounts of energy and it is programmable.

The new material is very promising for a wide range of applications, from the ability of robots to have more power without the use of additional energy to new helmets and protective materials that can dissipate energy much faster.

Alfred Crosby, professor of polymer engineering at UMass Amherst and co-signer of the study, said: “Imagine a rubber band. You stretch it back and when you let it go, it is thrown into the room. Now imagine a super rubber band. When you stretch it beyond a certain point, you activate extra energy stored in the material. “When you let that tire go, it flies for a mile.” This hypothetical rubber is made of a new metallic material – a substance designed to have a property not found in natural materials – which combines a rubber-like elastic substance with tiny magnets embedded in it.

This new “elastomagnetic” material utilizes a physical property known as phase shift to significantly enhance the amount of energy that the material can release or absorb. A phase shift occurs when a material moves from one state to another, such as water that turns to steam or liquid concrete that hardens on a road or sidewalk. Each time a material shifts its phase, energy is either released or absorbed. Phase shifts are not limited to changes between liquid, solid and gaseous states – a shift from one solid phase to another can also occur. An energy-releasing phase shift can be used as an energy source, but getting enough energy has always been the difficult issue.
“To enhance the release or absorption of energy, you have to create a new structure at the molecular or even atomic level,” Crosby said.
Using metamaterials, Crosby argues that he and his team have “overcome these challenges and not only created new materials, but also developed design algorithms that allow these materials to be programmed with specific responses, making them predictable.”

“Incorporating tiny magnets in the elastic material, we can control the phase transitions of this metal material. “And because phase shift is predictable and repetitive, we can make the material do exactly what we want it to do: either by absorbing energy from a large impact or by releasing large amounts of energy for explosive motion,” said another researcher, Xudong Liang. author of the paper, currently a professor at the Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzen (HITSZ), China.

The research – supported by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, the U.S. Army Research Bureau, and the HITSZ – has applications in any scenario that requires either high-impact strikes or lightning responses.

eandt.theiet.org

Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news