The Tartan

By Nina McCambridge

On Feb. 1, Science magazine published research which described a way to create plastic that can be tempered in order to change its properties. The work was inspired both by metal tempering and pluripotent stem cells, which are only found during embryonic development. The goal was to create a polymer that can have its properties transformed in a wide variety of ways, similar to how a stem cell is transformed to fit various specializations in the body. 

The research article states that this polymer “could offer substantial advantages, for example, in resource-scarce areas (at sea, in space, or on the battlefield) where a single material could meet an evolving, complex set of demands and applications.” When going on a long, difficult journey — like an outer space mission  — people can only bring a limited set of tools. The less specialized the tools are, the better. Similar to metal tempering, this polymer can have its properties (including “Young’s modulus … strain at break,” responsiveness to stimuli, and ability to hold weights) changed in a reversible fashion with heat. This is useful because “the most accessible stimulus in most environments is heat, which has been used by materials scientists for centuries.” Unlike chemically-altered plastic, thermal tempering could be much easier to achieve on a journey with limited supplies. In order to satisfy the researchers’ constraints, the temperature required had to be under 100 degrees Celsius. The researchers also say that their new materials can be used for “soft robotics applications” because the materials “exhibit shape-memory properties.”

Also in their article, the researchers described some of the ways their material can be used. Apparently, “the material tempered at 60 degrees Celsius… can be used in make utensils, such as a spoon that can scoop peanut butter or a fork that can pick up cheese,” whereas tempering it at 110 degrees Celsius “results in a material… that can now act as an adhesive with body temperature and pressure.” Though they have achieved reversible property variation from tempering, not all versions of the material have demonstrated all the desired properties. The researchers also tried tempering parts of an object, so that one piece of plastic could have different properties in different regions.

With all the health and environmental downsides in common plastic usage, it’s easy to forget how fantastic plastic can be. Plastic is light, cheap, and, as the name suggests, flexible. There is a diverse range of plastic varieties, and not all plastic is used to make cheap packaging.