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A D V A N C E D
M A T E R I A L S
&
P R O C E S S E S |
O C T O B E R
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NEW CARBON FIBER SAVES
MONEY AND ENERGY
LeMond Composites, Minneapolis,
secured a licensing agreement with the
DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL), Tenn., to offer what is said to be
an industry-disrupting carbon fiber to
the transportation, renewable energy,
and infrastructure markets. The break-
through process, invented by LeMond
CEO Connie Jackson and a research
team at ORNL, will reduce carbon fiber
production costs by more than 50%
relative to the lowest cost industrial
grade carbon fiber now available. The
LeMond version features mechanical
properties comparable to carbon fiber
costing three times as much. This new
method also reduces energy consumed
during production by up to 60%. The
innovative process will allow high vol-
ume, cost sensitive industries around
the world to reap the benefits of car-
bon fiber composites at a fraction of
the cost while incorporating chemistry
geared toward recyclability, says Jack-
son. .
NOVEL MATERIALS FOR
METAL-ORGANIC 2D
QUASICRYSTALS
A group of scientists led by Profes-
sor WilhelmAuwärter at TUM, Germany,
in collaboration with Hong Kong Uni-
versity of Science and Technology, and
the Spanish research institute IMDEA
Nanoscience, developed a new basis
Are you working with or have you
discovered a material or its properties
that exhibit OMG - Outrageous
Materials Goodness?
Send your submissions to
Julie Lucko at
.
OMG!
OUTRAGEOUS MATERIALS GOODNESS
A new process tomake carbon fiber
uses less energy and is much more
affordable than other methods.
DN gel (left) and newly developed HAp/
DN gel (right) including cross-sectional
views. Courtesy of T. Nonoyama and
S. Wada, et al.,Advanced Materials,
May 17, 2016.
Scanning tunneling microscopic image
of the quasicrystalline network built
up with europium atoms linked with
para-quaterphenyl-dicarbonitrile.
Courtesy of J.I. Urgel/TUM.
for producing 2D quasicrystals, which
could facilitate a better understanding
of these peculiar patterns.
Researchers successfully linked
europium with organic compounds,
thereby constructing a 2D quasicrystal
that has the potential to be extended
into a 3D quasicrystal. They also thor-
oughly elucidated the new network
geometry in unparalleled resolution
using a scanning tunneling microscope
and found a mosaic of four different
basic elements comprising triangles
and rectangles distributed irregularly
on a substrate. Some of these basic
elements assembled themselves to
regular dodecagons that, however,
cannot be mapped onto each other
through parallel translation. The result
is a complex pattern, a small work of
art at the atomic level with dodeca-
gonal symmetry. For more informa-
tion: Wilhelm Auwärter, ,
+49 89 289-12399, .
HYDROGEL MATERIAL
SPURS BONE BONDING
Researchers at HokkaidoUniversi-
ty, Japan, developed a new kind of hy-
drogel that bonds spontaneously and
strongly to defective or injured bones,
suggesting potential use for treating
joint damage. The group previously
developed a tough, high-strength
network gel called double-network
gel (DN gel), which exhibits excellent
performance such as low wear and
inductive function for cartilage regen-
eration. However, as the gel’s main
component is water, it is difficult for
it to bond with other surfaces—a
major stumbling block in its practical
application. Now, the team success-
fully added hydroxyapatite (HAp), the
major inorganic component of bone,
to the surface of DN gel by dipping it
in calcium solution and phosphate
solution. The HAp-coated DN gel (HAp/
DN gel) was then transplanted into a
defective rabbit bone. Four weeks lat-
er, the coated gel had securely bond-
ed to the bone, while the non-coated
gel had not bonded at all. Electron
microscope analysis reveals that the
newly formed bone component in the
damaged area had penetrated into the
gel surface and fused to it seamlessly.
.