Chemists discovered a new way to make polymers stronger: introduce a few weaker bonds into the material. Working with polyacrylate elastomers, they could increase the materials' resistance to tearing ...

Scientists have developed the first cells that can construct artificial polymers from building blocks that are not found in nature, by following instructions the researchers encoded in their genes.

This glue is made from leftover cooking oil, which contains fatty acids that are ideal for making flexible, durable, and ...

Hundreds of millions of tons of single-use plastic ends up in landfills every year, and even the small percentage of plastic that gets recycled can’t last forever. But our group of materials ...

Hundreds of millions of tons of single-use plastic ends up in landfills every year, and even the small percentage of plastic that gets recycled can’t last forever. But our group of materials ...

Hundreds of millions of tons of single-use plastic end up in landfills every year, and even the small percentage of plastic that gets recycled can’t last forever. But our group of materials scientists ...

Even though many plastics are recyclable, most are not recycled because of the cost and labor needed. To help make plastic recycling easier, chemists want to find new polymers that require less work ...

Carbon nanomaterials offer formulators and designers of polymer composites additives that can boost mechanical strength. However, these improvements do not materialize as expected when such systems ...

Scientists have come up with a new technique to evaluate the mechanical forces generated in polymer crystallization as they cool down from their molten state. They used small, fluorescent molecules to ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- A team of chemists from MIT and Duke University has discovered a counterintuitive way to make polymers stronger: introduce a few weaker bonds into the material. Working with a type of ...