27-Feb-2018

Inspired by the human eye, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed an adaptive metalens, that is essentially a flat, electronically controlled artificial eye. The adaptive metalens simultaneously controls for three of the major ...

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21-Nov-2017

Most of the 150 million tons of plastics produced around the world every year end up in landfills, the oceans and elsewhere. Less than 9 percent of plastics are recycled in the United States, rising to about 30 percent in Europe. That's a $176 billion problem, the potential energy savings ...

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15-Feb-2017

Carmel Majidi and Jonathan Malen of Carnegie Mellon University have developed a thermally conductive rubber material that represents a breakthrough for creating soft, stretchable machines and electronics. The new material, nicknamed "thubber," is an electrically insulating composite that exhibits ...

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14-Feb-2017

Due to its excellent material properties of elasticity, resilience, and electrical and thermal insulation, elastomers have been used in a myriad of applications. They are especially ideal for fabricating soft robots, flexible electronics and smart biomedical devices which require soft and ...

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Bioinspired intelligent material transports micro-objects

26-Jan-2017

Adhesive mechanisms in the natural world, as used by geckos and other animals when they walk upside down on the ceiling, have many advantages: they are always strongly adhesive - and without any glues or residues. Scientists at Kiel University are researching how these mechanisms can be ...

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22-Jul-2016

ExxonMobil announced today plans to expand its specialty elastomers plant in Newport, Wales. The company said the project, expected to be completed in late 2017, will result in a 25-percent increase in its global capacity to manufacture Santoprene™ thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV), ...

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A swimming microrobot formed from liquid-crystal elastomers is driven by a light-induced peristaltic motion

24-Feb-2016

Ciliates can do amazing things: Being so tiny, the water in which they live is like thick honey to these microorganisms. In spite of this, however, they are able to self-propel through water by the synchronized movement of thousands of extremely thin filaments on their outer skin, called cilia. ...

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24-Dec-2015

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs), essentially rubbers with liquid crystal properties, can do a number of fascinating things, especially in the fields of optics, photonics, telecommunications and medicine. They can curl up, bend, twist, wrinkle and stretch when exposed to light, heat, gases and ...

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25-Jun-2015

Huntsman Corporation announced that it has completed the acquisition of Tecnoelastomeri, a manufacturer and marketer of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) based hot-cast elastomer systems and processing machines, based in Modena, Italy. 2014 sales revenue for Tecnoelastomeri was approximately ...

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05-Jun-2015

The High Performance Elastomers business unit of specialty chemicals company LANXESS raises its prices for several synthetic rubbers in Europe, Middle East and Africa effective June 1, 2015 as follows: The price adjustments per metric ton for its EPDM grades is EUR100. The price adjustment ...

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