Most glues don’t work at super low temperatures, since they become rigid and brittle when frozen. So these chemists made a polymer that stays flexible, even in liquid nitrogen, allowing it to bond to surfaces when very cold. This new adhesive could be useful in aerospace and polar environments. And as a bonus, potential failures are easy to detect because it glows under UV light at low temperature!
Video credits are available on YouTube.
Source article:
“In Situ Adhesive and Crack Detectable Polyurea Adhesive at Extremely Low Temperatures”
Macromolecules
Corresponding author: Ruoyu Zhang, Ph.D.
Transcript
Most glues fail at very cold temperatures. But this glue, even hundreds of degrees below zero, is stronger than the steel it’s holding together. Other glues would freeze solid, meaning they can’t squish and spread to form bonds, as you can see in this experiment. So chemists designed a glue specifically for extreme cold, like Antarctica or outer space, by combining two well-known polymers: polyurea and PDMS.
Polyurea sticks strongly to different surfaces through hydrogen bonds, while polydimethylsiloxane is uniquely stretchy and bouncy, even when cold. The researchers made molecular chains with alternating sections of the two polymers. The long PDMS parts provide flexibility, and the urea parts provide strong bonds, creating a new polymer with both capabilities.
This glue stays sticky even at the super cold temperature of liquid nitrogen. It also glows under UV light, which could help reveal cracks or breaks.
To embed this video, please visit YouTube and use the Share function.
;void(0);){kind=link}