July/August_AMP_Digital

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 | J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 1 8 1 3 MINERALIZED MATERIALS COULD REGENERATE ENAMEL Researchers from Queen Mary University of London developed a new way to grow mineralized materials that could regenerate hard tissues. With re- markable precision, the new approach can create materials that behave like dental enamel and could be used to prevent and treat tooth decay. The new mechanism is based on a specific protein material that is able to trigger and guide the growth of apatite nano- crystals at multiple scales—similar to how these crystals grow when dental enamel develops. This structural orga- nization is critical for the outstanding physical properties exhibited by natural dental enamel. Enabling control of the mineralization process makes it possi- ble to create materials with properties that mimic different hard tissues be- yond enamel such as bone and dentin. As such, this research could find use in a var- iety of applications in regenerative medicine. www.qmul.ac.uk . PLIABLE COMPOSITE FROM PESTS AND PULP Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technol- ogy (NIST), Gaithersburg, Md., have combined de- rivatives of two surplus materials — wood pulp and dried-up pieces of an invasive pest — to form a new composite material that is flexible, sustainable, nontoxic, and UV light-re- flective. The material could soon be used in a wide variety of applications such as food packaging, biomedical de- vices, and building construction. Combining this strange concoc- tion of wood and pests requires a Bouli- gand structure, in which molecules stack up in a twisted shape similar to tiny spiral staircases. Scientists have learned that the Bouligand structure provides a certain kind of resilience to cracking; the force of an impact is guided through a series of detours by nanosized twists and turns. Instead of cracking straight through, the energy of a bump or crash is deflected through a difficult path, leaving the overall ma- terial intact. Scientists discovered sev- eral years ago that by washing wood pulp with acid to remove its lignin and Tunicates ready for processing with wood pulp. Courtesy of Johan Foster. EMERGING TECHNOLOGY In May, the DOE announced it will invest up to $30 million over the next three years in quantum information science (QIS). As a new and wide-ranging research field, QIS is expected to lay the groundwork for the next generation of com- puting and information processing, as well as an array of other innovative technologies including those derived from materials science. energy.gov. BRIEF amorphous cellulose, they could create a milky solution that ultimately dries to form a new material with a Bouli- gand structure. The key components of this solution are tiny crystalline rods of cellulose. The NIST team hypothesized that combining the short wood-derived nanocellulose rods with another natu- ral material with longer crystalline rods would result in something new that would be incredibly strong and flexi- ble. The scientists chose to use the car- casses of a dried-up aquatic creature called a tunicate for the new composite material. Adding tunicates causes the nanocrystals to twist in a different way and accelerates structure formation in the wood pulp. The team will continue to test ways the tunicate-wood pulp mixture could be used to manufacture lightweight automobiles, aerospace ve- hicles, and other products. nist.gov. Similar structures are evident between the new enamel-like material and human dental enamel. Courtesy of Alvaro Mata.