Color-Changing Organogel Stretches 46 Times Its Size and Self-Heals (phys.org)
- Reference: 0179331244
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/09/17/2129246/color-changing-organogel-stretches-46-times-its-size-and-self-heals
- Source link: https://phys.org/news/2025-09-organogel-size.html
> Scientists from Taiwan have developed a new material that [2]can stretch up to 4,600% of its original length before breaking . Even if it does break, gently pressing the pieces together at room temperature allows it to heal, fully restoring its shape and stretchability within 10 minutes.
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> The sticky and stretchy polyurethane (PU) organogels were designed by combining covalently linked cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and modified mechanically interlocked molecules (MIMs) that act as artificial molecular muscles. The muscles make the gel sensitive to external forces such as stretching or heat, where its color changes from orange to blue based on whether the material is at rest or stimulated. Thanks to these unique properties, the gels hold great promise for next-generation technologies -- from flexible electronic skins and soft robots to anti-counterfeiting solutions.
The findings have been [3]published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials .
[1] https://slashdot.org/~alternative_right
[2] https://phys.org/news/2025-09-organogel-size.html
[3] https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.202519737
Not quite there yet (Score:2)
> The gels autonomously self-healed at room temperature, recovering more than 90% of their original strength and stretchability.
It's a neat material, and 90% is a good number but its not 100%. Put this on a robot limb that stretched it and it would quickly lose elasticity.. It also took 10 minutes to fully self-heal. I'm sure there's some good applications for this but anything requiring extreme flexibility will wear this out quickly since a 10% loss in strength after each use isn't great.
Re: (Score:2)
The gel was cut and the 10% loss was after healing. A stretch of 46x sounds pretty good, so one could easily desing the application to stay below this maximum strechiness. But even if the gel rips under unforeseen conditions, a short repair in the field that recovers 90% of the functionality soulds awesome compared to what we have now.
not looking forward to eating this... (Score:2)
...as yet another example of potentially dangerous micro-plastics, once it is dumped into a stream or the sea, and it travels through the food chain to humans.
hold great promise for next-generation tech (Score:1)
Yeah.
I already possess something that alters shape when stimulated, dramatically increasing its volume and self heals when damaged. I don't have the colour change gene though, so maybe this can be an upgrade.
Clever Chinese (Score:2)
Americans seem to think Chinese are stupid, but the evidence shows otherwise.
Model T-666 (Score:2)
Shit, they're building an Orange Terminator.
Re: (Score:2)
I almost came when I read this.