With this in mind, it has become crucial to investigate flame retardants for plastics. The goal is to improve the material's resistance to fire and reduce the heat release and flame spreading speed.

A new polymer removes biofilms—mats of microbes and their exuded substances—by mimicking a fluid oozed by barnacles (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c09311). The material could provide a ...

Entropy gets a bad rap. Typically associated with randomness and chaos, it can also correlate with freedom and diversity.

Recent advances in synthetic polypeptide and polymer chemistry have transformed the landscape of biomaterials by combining the precision of organic synthesis with the versatile functionalities of ...

Science has long taken inspiration from the natural world, and few natural designs are as iconic as the helical shape that makes life possible. The best-known example of such a molecule is DNA, a ...

Illinois professor Ying Diao led a multi-institutional study that positions synthetic polymers as a potential alternative to expensive, unsustainable minerals for use in semiconductors and other ...

Researchers' new polymer strategy shifts a centuries-old engineering paradigm with a molecular design that doesn't sacrifice stretchability for stiffness. Researchers at the University of Virginia ...

The photo shows Dr. Qi Zhang and Prof. Dr. Ben Feringa in front of Shanghai Tower, which five years ago inspired a project to create a dynamical helical polymer, that can also be recycled into its ...