Polymers articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article |

    Stretchable radio-frequency electronics based on a dielectro-elastic elastomer is demonstrated to be capable of completely maintaining operating frequencies unaffected by strain and shows superior electrical, mechanical and thermal properties compared with conventional stretchable substrate materials.

    • Sun Hong Kim
    • , Abdul Basir
    •  & Yei Hwan Jung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A photopolymer platform derived from renewable lipoates can be 3D-printed into high-resolution parts, which possess properties comparable to some commercial acrylic resins, and then recycled to produce a re-printable resin.

    • Thiago O. Machado
    • , Connor J. Stubbs
    •  & Andrew P. Dove

  • Article |

    High-density, intrinsically stretchable transistors with high driving ability and integrated circuits with high operation speed and large-scale integration were enabled by a combination of innovations in materials, fabrication process design, device engineering and circuit design.

    • Donglai Zhong
    • , Can Wu
    •  & Zhenan Bao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    We introduce a scalable, high-resolution, 3D printing technique for the fabrication of shape-specific particles based on roll-to-roll continuous liquid interface production, enabling direct integration within biomedical, analytical and advanced materials applications.

    • Jason M. Kronenfeld
    • , Lukas Rother
    •  & Joseph M. DeSimone

  • Article |

    A high-throughput, non-contact framework is described that uses the laser-induced vibrational signatures of metamaterials to non-destructively quantify their omnidirectional elastic information, dynamic linear properties, damping properties and defects.

    • Yun Kai
    • , Somayajulu Dhulipala
    •  & Carlos M. Portela

  • Article
    | Open Access

    We have developed an automated and high-throughput, three-dimensional, vision-controlled inkjet deposition process that enables the high-resolution, contactless printing of a range of materials with varying elastic moduli to create complex structures and robots.

    • Thomas J. K. Buchner
    • , Simon Rogler
    •  & Robert K. Katzschmann

  • Article |

    A new compatibilization strategy installs dynamic crosslinkers into several classes of binary, ternary and postconsumer immiscible polymer mixtures in situ, with the resulting compatibilized dynamic thermosets exhibiting intrinsic reprocessability and enhanced tensile strength and creep resistance.

    • Ryan W. Clarke
    • , Tobias Sandmeier
    •  & Eugene Y.-X. Chen

  • Article |

    A depolymerization method is described that uses electrified spatiotemporal heating to selectively generate monomers from the commodity plastics polypropylene and poly(ethylene terephthalate), allowing control over the pyrolysis of plastic waste and reducing the formation of side products.

    • Qi Dong
    • , Aditya Dilip Lele
    •  & Liangbing Hu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Information from natural protein libraries was extracted and used to design heteropolymer ensembles as mixtures of disordered, partially folded and folded proteins, providing valuable guiding principles to synthetically realize protein properties.

    • Zhiyuan Ruan
    • , Shuni Li
    •  & Ting Xu

  • Article |

    A class of dielectric copolymers called ladderphanes is shown to outperform existing dielectric polymers and composites, with high discharged energy density and charge–discharge efficiency even at temperatures up to 200 °C.

    • Jie Chen
    • , Yao Zhou
    •  & Qing Wang

  • Article |

    Untreated, postconsumer-PET from 51 different thermoformed products can all be almost completely degraded by FAST-PETase in 1 week and PET can be resynthesized from the recovered monomers, demonstrating recycling at the industrial scale.

    • Hongyuan Lu
    • , Daniel J. Diaz
    •  & Hal S. Alper

  • Article |

      . Triplet fusion upconversion nanocapsules dispersed in a photopolymerizable resin allow for volumetric 3D printing at low-power continuous-wave excitation without support structures. 

    • Samuel N. Sanders
    • , Tracy H. Schloemer
    •  & Daniel N. Congreve

  • Article |

    An all-in-one methodology for fabricating soft robotics reported here uses interfacial flows in elastomers that cure to produce actuators that can be tailored to suit applications from artificial muscles to grippers.

    • Trevor J. Jones
    • , Etienne Jambon-Puillet
    •  & P.-T. Brun

  • Article |

    Surface enhancements in glass mobility are complicated in polymers by the interplay of the surface mobile layer thickness with a second length scale (the size of the polymer chains), giving rise to a transient rubbery surface even in polymers with short chains.

    • Zhiwei Hao
    • , Asieh Ghanekarade
    •  & Biao Zuo

  • Article |

    A two-tiered dynamic design strategy achieves topological transformations of two-dimensional polymeric cellular microstructures in a reversible and temporally controllable manner through exposure to different liquids.

    • Shucong Li
    • , Bolei Deng
    •  & Joanna Aizenberg

  • Article |

    A free-swimming soft robot inspired by deep-sea creatures, with artificial muscle, power and control electronics spread across a polymer matrix, successfully adapts to high pressure and operates in the deep ocean.

    • Guorui Li
    • , Xiangping Chen
    •  & Wei Yang

  • Article |

    Polycarbonates and polyesters with materials properties like those of high-density polyethylene can be recycled chemically by depolymerization to their constituent monomers, re-polymerization yielding material with uncompromised processing and materials properties.

    • Manuel Häußler
    • , Marcel Eck
    •  & Stefan Mecking

  • Article |

    A reprogrammable mechanical metamaterial constructed of bistable unit cells that can be switched independently and reversibly between two stable states with distinct mechanical properties using magnetic actuation is demonstrated.

    • Tian Chen
    • , Mark Pauly
    •  & Pedro M. Reis

  • Article |

    A method of endowing thermoset plastics with a degree of recyclability and reprocessability by incorporating cleavable chemical linkages in the strands of the polymer, rather than in the crosslinks, is presented.

    • Peyton Shieh
    • , Wenxu Zhang
    •  & Jeremiah A. Johnson

  • Article |

    Voxelated soft matter is designed and fabricated using multimaterial multinozzle three-dimensional printing, which switches between different viscoelastic inks along the same print filament to print multiple materials simultaneously.

    • Mark A. Skylar-Scott
    • , Jochen Mueller
    •  & Jennifer A. Lewis

  • Article |

    Heavier-than-air insect-scale aerial robots powered by soft artificial muscles can hover and also recover from in-flight collisions, illustrating the potential for developing next-generation agile soft robots.

    • Yufeng Chen
    • , Huichan Zhao
    •  & Robert J. Wood

  • Letter |

    A polymer code based on a triplet of parameters—network strand length, side-chain length and grafting density—enables materials to be designed with specific combinations of mechanical properties to mimic biological materials.

    • Mohammad Vatankhah-Varnosfaderani
    • , William F. M. Daniel
    •  & Sergei S. Sheiko

  • Letter |

    Illumination of thin liquid-crystal polymer films that contain azobenzene derivatives with short thermal relaxation times induces a continuous wave motion throughout the films, owing to a feedback loop driven by material self-shadowing.

    • Anne Helene Gelebart
    • , Dirk Jan Mulder
    •  & Dirk J. Broer

  • Letter |

    Nanometre-scale cracks in a hydrophobic surface coating applied to hydrocarbon proton-exchange fuel-cell membranes work as tiny valves, delaying water desorption and maintaining ion conductivity in the membrane on dehumidification.

    • Chi Hoon Park
    • , So Young Lee
    •  & Young Moo Lee

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