The material can be turned from liquid to solid (or vice versa) in 1/10th of a second, the group reports online 5 October in Nature Materials. The researchers measured the material’s strength by electrifying it between two parallel plates, which they either pulled apart or slid past each other with increasing force. The new material increases in strength with the applied field, up to the strength of hard rubber, they found. Some electric smart fluids get nearly as hard, but only at high pressure. The urea coating is key to the enhanced effect, the researchers say.
“This does suggest a new route to [smart electric] fluids that may have useful properties,” says John Ginder, a physicist in Research and Advanced Engineering at Ford Motor Co. But he adds that the material would have to withstand even higher sheer to survive in clutches or shock absorbers. Bill Bullough, an independent engineer and consultant at the University of Sheffield, U.K., says he has performed such tests on the fluid “and it does work well. It’s a big improvement.”
In applying this tech. to the auto world, I hope researchers consider the varying conditions [such as lightning, static, or elec. shorts from collisions]. I can just see my car locking up the brakes because my new curb feelers produced an unforeseen event…
One exciting possibility for this type of tech could be some sort of skin-tight non-restrictive armor. Combined with other tech, it could not only change states in an instant – the suit can actually change its physical composition and/or density to absorb vast amounts of kinetic and thermal energy. Sounds like fantasy, but I find the possibilities in nanotech so fascinating… allow me to dream.