Nanotech Polymers Could Lead to Ultralight Car Parts

Researchers at MIT have created supertough polymers modified with clay nanoparticles that could lead to ultralight, fuel-saving car parts. By reinforcing the rigid crystalline structures in an elastic polyurethane with thin, flat, nanoscale clay platelets, researchers produced a material that is 20 times as stiff, 4 times as tough, and can handle temperatures more than twice as high. Past attempts to add stiffness without sacrificing elasticity have met with failure, says lead researcher Gareth McKinley, as MIT Technology Review reports:

The greater toughness means that much less material can be used — as much as 75 percent less. [...] The new material is also resistant to heat: the clay particles "improve the high-temperature strength of these polymers immensely," McKinley says. The original polyurethane starts to soften at around 100°C, losing its stiffness and breaking easily. But the new material is heat resistant to 200 degrees, which means it could be used in applications such as the hood of a car. Because the materials are light, the fuel savings "could potentially be very large," McKinley says.

One expert at Penn State notes that the process used to disperse the nanoparticles uniformly throughout the polymer is even more significant than the material itself because it could apply to a wide variety of systems and use different nanoparticles (such as nanotubes) to make "even more remarkable materials." "There are whole fields of science where this can be applied."

While most of the buzz about new automotive technology focuses (for obvious reasons) on fuels and power sources, innovations in materials and manufacturing processes can have a massive effect on both fuel efficiency and safety. Shouldn't we be giving more attention and more resources to innovations like these?

[Source: MIT Technology Review]