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Researchers add order to polymer gels -A new kind of soft elastic material has medical and technological applications-

Gel-like materials have a wide range of applications, especially in chemistry and medicine. However, their usefulness is sometimes limited by their inherent random and disordered nature. Researchers from the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Solid State Physics have found a way to produce a new kind of gel which overcomes this limitation. It is still malleable and adaptable like existing gels, but it has a more ordered structure, which can open up a new range of possible uses in various fields.

Press Release|UTokyo

Gel photo

A sample of the novel homogeneous polymer gel. Image: © 2019 Li et al.

Reference:

  • Jounal:「Science Advances
  • Title:Polymer gel with a flexible and highly ordered three-dimensional network synthesized via bond-percolation
  • Authors: Xiang Li, Shintaro Nakagawa, Yui Tsuji, Nobuyuki Watanabe, Mitsuhiro Shibayama
  • DOI:10.1126/sciadv.aax8647
(Published on: Saturday December 7th, 2019)