Hydrogels

Georgia Tech takes vision for soft robots to the next level with PHySL, a biomimetic photo-responsive hydrogel soft lens that focuses using light alone. It does away with electronics, wires, bulk, and the dangers of breaking.

A serendipitous discovery at Stanford revealed the properties of a material that changes form when exposed to flame. The finding holds promise for a spray coating that could protect homes from fire over four times as long as current solutions.

Gels and glasses are on opposite ends of the material spectrum, but engineers at North Carolina State University (NCSU) have developed a new class called “glassy gels” that are both strong and flexible, as well as sticky and self-healing.

Limescale buildup in thermal power plants due to the use of hot water can substantially affect efficiency, prompting researchers to develop a novel soft hydrogel-based surface coating that repels limescale crystals and prevents them from adhering.

While we've seen quite a few filtration systems for making polluted water drinkable, many are quite complex, or utilize costly materials. By contrast, an experimental new setup simply requires users to inject dirty water through a layer of cellulose.

Researchers have created a superabsorbent hydrogel that can pull moisture from the air, even in desert conditions. The new material opens the door to creating an effective, sustainable method of addressing the important issue of water scarcity.

In order to reach their full potential, soft robotic devices can't just consist of rigid electronic components encased in squishy rubber. A new material could help in that regard, as it's soft, self-healing and electrically conductive.

Although we've seen a number of systems that use sunlight to purify tainted water, their output is often quite limited. A new loofah-inspired hydrogel, however, uses sunlight to treat much more water in one go … enough to meet a person's daily needs.

Scientists at the University of Maryland have developed a novel gel sheet material with excellent absorption abilities, which they imagine finding use everywhere from messy kitchens to operating theaters.

Researchers at the University of Kent have developed a protein-based family of synthetic materials that can withstand supersonic impacts. Called TSAMs, they see these materials one day finding use in military and space applications.

After the summer so many of us have just sweltered through, we need better ways to cool buildings. Researchers have now spruced up the humble window with hydrogel-glass, which can selectively block heat from the Sun without blocking its light.

It’s a cruel irony that huge amounts of water are floating around in the air, inaccessible. Researchers have now developed a salty hydrogel that can pull plenty of fresh drinking water out of air in relatively low humidity.