January_2021_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 A N U A R Y 2 0 2 1 9 the lab that allows us to move a piece of hot steel underneath a jet of water at a speed of almost 30 kilometers per hour as we make recordings close to the surface using high-speed cameras.” Using a borescope, placed in the jets of water, she found that the cooling water can come into contact with steel with a temperature of no less than 900°C. When Gomez raised the water tem- perature from 25° to 60°C, she was able to cool the steel in her test setup a fur- ther 50° without entering the unstable regime. This is knowledge that could be of high value to steel manufacturers, she says, since the water temperature can be easily adjusted without having to alter the entire production line. www. tue.nl/en. BIOINSPIRED MATERIAL A research team from the Uni- versity of Science and Technology of China (USTC) created a new method to manufacture materials with a similar structure as nacre from wood-derived fiber and mica, with adaption to mass production, good processability, and tunable coloration. The resulting mate- rial may be a newpotential replacement for plastics. Natural nacre has a hierarchically ordered structure at multiscale levels, enabling it to be both strong and tough. Inspired by nacre, the researchers mim- ic the ordered brick- and-mortar structure using the TiO 2 -coat- ed mica microplate- let (TiO 2 -mica) and cellulose nanofiber (CNF) by the proposed directional deforming assembly method. This method directly presses the hydrogel of TiO 2 -mica and CNF, while keeping the size on in-plane directions unchanged. The obtained materials adapt to temperatures ranging from -130°C to 250°C, while standard plastics easily soften at high tempertures. The bio-inspired material also has excel- lent strength and toughness, more than two times higher than those of high-performance engineering plastics, making it a strong competitor to pe- troleum-based plastics. en.ustc.edu.cn . A variety of all-natural bioinspired structural materials in different colors can be fabricated with TiO 2 -mica. Courtesy of Guan Qingfang.