Scientists Develop Dynamically Reprogrammable Materials: Light Hardens And Softens When Dark.

A team of international scientists from Queensland University of Technology has just developed a new type of "dynamically reprogrammable" material based on light regulation, which is able to harden under certain types of light and soften again in the dark. For 3D printing and other applications, this new material can bring great potential, such as temporary support for some complex structure. It is reported that this material is a masterpiece by scientists from Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Belgium Gent University, and carlour Technical Institute in Germany.

　　 The new material consists of polymer structure, which can change its structure according to light and then resume. (the left is co-author Hannes Houck, and the right is Professor Christopher Barner Kowollik).

Combined with the above materials, we can make dynamic reprogrammable new materials that can be rugged only when exposed to green LED. When it is necessary to recover, the researchers only need to keep it in the dark for some time.

Interestingly enough, the material will harden again just by turning on the lights again. Moreover, the material is not only based on two extremes of soft and hard, but can adjust the mechanical properties to a certain position in the middle.

Researchers say that this ability is unique in materials science and runs counter to current understanding of chemistry. Usually, you will damage the polymer molecular chain meshes with different wavelengths of light or additional thermal stimulation.

But here, we use green LED lights to achieve material fixation and vice versa, making it soft and mobile in the dark. However, just by turning on the lights again, the material will continue to repeat its unique properties.

　　 The research team called the new structure "light stable dynamic materials", hoping to eventually generate a new class of materials that enable them to make corresponding light in a more useful way.

At present, this property has been used in 3D printing, because the stacking process is very complex, and it is usually necessary to add temporary support structure to enable objects with vertical characteristics (such as bridges) to collapse.

The details of the study have been published in the recently published journal of the American Chemical Society. The original title is "Reversible Polymer-Chain Modification: Ring-Opening and Closing of Polylactone".