Dharamshala, 9th February: Researchers at MIT have developed a lightweight polymer that is tougher than steel and can be mass-produced “easily.” Although the so-called 2DPA-1 polymer has a density of one-sixth that of steel, it requires twice the force to break. As a result, the researchers believe the new material could be used as a thin but ultrahard protective coating for phones or car parts in the future. The polymer also possesses up to six times the deformation resistance of bulletproof glass, making it ideal for lightweight but highly shock-absorbing barriers, as well as bridge and building construction. Another intriguing feature of the new 2DPA-1 material is that it is impervious to gases and liquids, offering further corrosion protection to any car parts it might be placed to.

The MIT Chemistry Department team succeeded in getting its molecules adhered together in a two-dimensional sheet-like structure termed polyaramide in order to create such a polymer, a feat previously thought to be unachievable and decades in the making. The material was created by stacking molecular chain “discs” on top of one other, locked together by extremely strong hydrogen bonds that wouldn’t allow even gases, let alone liquids, to flow through.

According to the researchers, mass-producing the light yet durable polymer is merely a matter of increasing the quantity of the materials used in spinning it. Because there are many promising but cost-prohibitive materials that haven’t stepped outside of a lab for that reason, the capacity to make the 2DPA-1 material affordably and at scale is at least as essential as its discovery, if not more so.

The Center for Enhanced Nanofluidic Transport, which is financed by the US government, is sponsoring the new tough-as-steel polymer study. The Army Research Laboratory and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science

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