Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

IBM Discovers New Class of Polymers

Posted by samzenpus on from the brand-new dept.

Charliemopps (1157495) writes "IBM Research has published a new paper to the journal Science which describes a newly discovered class of Industrial Polymers that promise to revolutionize the fields of transportation, aerospace, and microelectronics. These materials resist cracking, have strength higher than that of bone, the ability to self-heal, and are completely recyclable. 'Codenamed Titan and Hydro, both of which came from the same reaction. One is rigid; it could become part of the next generation of computers. The other is a gel, so it it could be included in water-soluble nail polish.'"

28 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. The problem with most recylcing is sorting by gurps_npc · · Score: 4, Insightful
    That is, Iron makes a great recyclable because it is magnetic.

    Other metals do OK because we can melt them down and scrape off the slagg, effectively 'distilling' them.

    All other recyclables are far less valuable because of the ton of work we need to do sorting garbage to get them back.

    Plastics and organics on the other hand tend to be very hard to recycle because if you try to melt them, they burn.

    One more 'recylcable' that requires a lot of sorting is pretty worthless, unless it has a quality like magnetic or distillable

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
    1. Re:The problem with most recylcing is sorting by VortexCortex · · Score: 4, Informative

      Chopping up all the plastics and suspending them in water, oil, etc fluids is how some places separate them. It's a kind of "distillation" I suppose.

      Also, eddy currents can be induced in aluminum, tin, etc. other metals to sort them by tossing them around.

      Crushed glass can be sorted by optical systems which let pieces fall and puff jets of air at certain pieces.

      In Houston (and lots of other places) we don't have to sort our recyclables. Soon we may not even have to separate the recycling from the trash:

      One Bin For All (OBFA) is the next evolution of recycling. It will allow
      Houston residents to place all trash, recyclables, and compostables
      in one bin, providing for a much higher rate of resource recovery.

      Since the two polymers "come from the same reaction" I'm guessing there's a way to separate them...

    2. Re:The problem with most recylcing is sorting by sumdumass · · Score: 2

      Do a video search for single stream recycling. That is for not separating your recyclables at the curb side.

      It uses a process that sorts similar to how you described with glass. Except it has a few more interesting parts to it. Most major waste companies have them in the large cities in the US now.

    3. Re:The problem with most recylcing is sorting by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 4, Interesting

      yes, in fact I've used ping pong balls and nail polish remover before. Cut up the ping pongs, put them into a dish of nail polish remover, and it melts. I then dip whatever tool handle or such into the mix, and then pull it out and wait a few seconds. Once the polish remover evaporates, it turns back into the plastic, giving me an easy way of coating various objects cheaply and quickly. I'll admit I saw the idea on the BBC's "Bang Goes the Theory", a show everyone on here should be watching!

    4. Re:The problem with most recylcing is sorting by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Built for life, a life times use, is what needs to be promoted.

      Well, no. That made sense when new inventions tended to come at a rate much slower than the human lifespan. Now they come much more rapidly, and technologies are often outdated before you even get them into your hands. Even with our throwaway culture on average only about 25% of an automobile's energy consumption is in its production.

      We could be making things like garden trowels to a higher minimum standard, but the things that really take a lot of energy to produce, like a car, tend to consume most of their energy over their lifetime and not in production, or already have a pretty long lifetime like a house.

      Houses, on the other hand, really are built like shit and not designed to be recyclable. The average house is so far behind technology it's mind-numbing. A new house consumes a staggering amount of energy in production and the shitbox houses of today can barely be counted on to last forty years.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. IBM == Weyland-Yutani by Saija · · Score: 2

    An humongous corp patenting a lot of thing on fields such as robotics, ia, materials..

    --
    Slashdot ya no es que lo era! ;)
    1. Re:IBM == Weyland-Yutani by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A tear came into my eye from the thought. There is progress and the future is as fascinating as in the movies. Samsung, for example, went after generic medicines quite recently. There is more to this life than endless investor value grabs and meaningless dot.coms, after all.

  3. Every few months.... by mark-t · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... you hear about a new revolutionary breakthrough in such-and-such a field, but nothing ever comes of it. </jaded>

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    1. Re:Every few months.... by NettiWelho · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes, thats what makes switching these vacuum tubes so bothersome on my PC.

    2. Re:Every few months.... by Tailhook · · Score: 2

      There may be people reading your post using a retina focused prism projector on their wireless, voice controlled eye-wear. But I doubt it; folks like that have better things to do than read your drivel.

      --
      Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
    3. Re:Every few months.... by ratnerstar · · Score: 2

      Stop being so cynical, this is going to revolutionize the field of water soluble nail polish.

      --
      Just because you sold your soul to the devil that needn't make you a teetotaler. --The Devil and Daniel Webster
    4. Re:Every few months.... by russotto · · Score: 3, Informative

      ... you hear about a new revolutionary breakthrough in such-and-such a field, but nothing ever comes of it.

      True, but off the top of my head IBM has within my lifetime come up with two which have actually worked: GMR hard drives (though not GMR itself), and copper interconnect.

    5. Re:Every few months.... by ratnerstar · · Score: 2

      Copper interconnect? I barely even know 'er interconnect!

      --
      Just because you sold your soul to the devil that needn't make you a teetotaler. --The Devil and Daniel Webster
  4. Which Is Which? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Lemme guess, Titan is the water-soluble one and Hydro is the super-strong one?

  5. according to the article... by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This stuff breaks down when exposed to acidic water.

    So it certainly won't be very durable outside anywhere on the east coast of the US thanks to the acid rain.

    And indoors, well just watch out for the Pepsi Syndrome!

    1. Re:according to the article... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      strangely iron, steel and many other materials we build houses and vehicles out of also break down when exposed to acidic water.

      perhaps we could simply paint this new polymer to protect it?

  6. Quite the anti-climax..... by shri · · Score: 2

    Starting off with ... "fields of transportation, aerospace, and microelectronics"

    But the real application is ... "water-soluble nail polish.'"

    1. Re:Quite the anti-climax..... by Charliemopps · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Starting off with ... "fields of transportation, aerospace, and microelectronics"

      But the real application is ... "water-soluble nail polish.'"

      This is what I don't like about submitting to slashdot. It reads like I wrote that. Like that's a quote from me. That's not what I submitted at all. They basically cut the last half of my post off, typed something totally different and provided an entirely different link. For once the editors did edit the story before posting it, but instead of improving it they mangled it.

      In the paper, if you read it, this isn't really about the 2 materials the editors stuck in. Those are just the result of the real breakthrough. Which is IBM has designed modeling software that can design plastics to order. Previously they would just create a plastic, play with it, and see what it was good for. This is how accidents like Silly Putty and Post-it notes came about. But with this new software you can put in characteristics you want the plastic to have and it will spit out which plastics to make and how to make them. It will be revolutionary to every field in industry. The 2 materials mentioned in the Editors link were what they created with the software as a test. Their properties, while interesting, are incidental to the real discovery which is the software.

    2. Re:Quite the anti-climax..... by TubeSteak · · Score: 2

      That all sounds very interesting. I would like to read about it. Could you please provide your original link?

      It usually gets lost in the clutter, but AFAIK, every /. story includes a link to the original submission.
      Under the section You may like to read:
      Submission: IBM discovers new class of Polymers

      The submitted summary (in that link) is nothing like what the GP describes, but that's all there is to see.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    3. Re:Quite the anti-climax..... by Charliemopps · · Score: 2

      http://online.wsj.com/article/...

  7. Water-soluble nail polish? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm not exactly the heaviest user of nail polish in the world, but I have to think that making it water-soluble is a terrible, terrible idea.

  8. Re:Terrible journalism by joe_frisch · · Score: 2

    And the mechanical properties, like yield strength, and modulus in some useful units like psi or Pascalls or something, not comparing it to "bone". At one point they say 1/3 the strength of steel, but steel varies by huge amounts depending on the alloy. And was that number with reinforcement or not??

    Otherwise its:
    we have a new plastic. We won't tell you what it is or what its properties are, except that its thermosetting (like a million other plastics) and it doesn't survive mildly acidic water.

  9. Abstract by sensei+moreh · · Score: 2

    Abstract: ahref=http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6185/732.abstract//rel=url2html-17437http://www.sciencemag.org/cont...>

    --
    Geology - it's not rocket science; it's rock science
  10. Re:Can you make condoms with it? by m2shariy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes. Even better, condoms which dissolve practically in no time so there is no need to dispose of the used ones!

  11. Portal 2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why does this feel like some long lost intro text to Portal 2?

  12. Re:Can you make condoms with it? by Buck+Feta · · Score: 2

    Seriously disapointed this was not addressed in the brief.

    It will be addressed in the briefs.

    --
    I am Audience.
  13. Re:One word by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 2

    you mean this? Here's some more info, dated from 2009. It's 4x stronger than normal glass, it's basically a type of see-though sapphire...but it's been around for awhile, it's "big use" is armored windows.

  14. Re:Can you make condoms with it? by rgbatduke · · Score: 5, Funny

    Re: IBM Memo 92148 (Anonymous Coward/Slashdot) Can you make condoms with it?

    Hmm, intriguing idea. Almost certainly, but out of which polymer? A rigid "Titan" condom could certainly cover more than one situation (and the idea had considerable appeal when we ran it over the flagpole among our senior execs to see who saluted it and who turned away blushing) but the boys here in R&D said there might be trouble fitting it into a wallet. However, the marketing boys said that we wouldn't even have to change the name -- Titan Condoms (made by IBM!) would sell like hot cakes even if one did have to keep them standing on a shelf or nightstand next to the bed. Besides, if they don't sell to the general population, a bit of retooling and they'll make gangbusters self-propelled grenade casings (especially in the larger sizes) -- although legal says that calling them "Titan missiles" might infringe some trademark or other.

    R&D was, however, quite excited at the prospect of a brush-on "Hydro" condom -- one would never need to take it off. We had a number of volunteers for a pilot project, and it turns out that in fact, one might never be able to take it off. Apparently "Hydro" is also being considered as a nearly indestructible super glue because of all of its dangling, um, "bonds" but this was being investigated by another team. There were, unfortunately, a few drawbacks pointed out by those party-poopers over in legal and their paid shills from the medical profession, so the idea was tabled for the time being, which basically means that we're still going ahead with the project but looking for just the right test population -- males on dialysis or willing to undergo a critical surgical alteration of the liquid waste elimination pathway, for example. However, we're a lot more interested in large federal or state contracts; this is (for example) an intriguing idea for our prison systems, if we can get it past Engineering.

    Keep up the good work, AC, and we are gratified that you are making this valuable suggestion anonymously, as it saves us from the tedious process of running you down and making you sign release forms or having you assassinated so that we can cleanly patent the idea as our own. Now you'll have to excuse me -- I have to go empty my cloaca.

    Irving Bentabit
    IBM (R&D)

    --
    Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.