Dubbed “Metal Rubber,” this novel new material has piqued the corporate world’s interest. Find out why developing applications for it is no stretch:

It’s called “Metal Rubber” and as its moniker suggests, it can stretch to triple its length and conduct electricity as effectively as a bar of steel, says Dr. Rick Claus. Claus is the founder of NanoSonic, the Virginia-based company that developed the filmy brown polymer, producing its latest version in mid-2004.

The fact that Metal Rubber—a plastic filled with metal ions—combines such divergent properties and does so in a thick, sturdy material has not escaped the attention of the corporate world. For example, SRI International is considering using the material in artificial muscles and mirrors for space travel, while Lockheed Martin is reportedly putting it to work to build more flexible aircraft wings. And the polymer’s applications stretch beyond aerospace and defense. Claus thinks it could be employed in handheld electronics, prosthetic limbs and toys. While Jennifer Lalli, the company’s director of nanocomposites, sees a future for Metal Rubber in biomedical devices and electronic displays.

The new plastic joins a lengthy list of innovations from the burgeoning field of nanotechnology—the study and manipulation of individual atoms and molecules to make novel materials, devices and systems. In December 2003, President Bush authorized $3.7 billion to fund nanotechnology research and development.

According to Claus, Metal Rubber offers the “nano-advantage” of only requiring about one percent of metal content to achieve conductivity. This enables the polymer to stay elastic and affordable, as metal is an expensive component. When the new material is mass produced, Claus says it will cost only about one-thousandth the price of an equivalent all-metal conductor. What’s more, Metal Rubber weighs less than one percent of its steel counterpart.

While Lalli will not divulge the breakthrough process that makes Metal Rubber possible, she does reveal that the company has greatly refined its processes for nano-based assembly. Her team of material chemists can now produce the material thicker and more quickly, she says, using a molecular layering process called electro-static assembly. As a result, Metal Rubber is not just a thin coating but a heftier, more usable material.

While Claus believes that Metal Rubber may show up in products as early as next year, he concedes that fabrication is currently an issue. In fact, the company needs a day and a half just to produce samples—which are 12 inches by 12 inches—of the material. But while the road to commercialization may still be a very long one—some estimate that practical applications are 15-20 years away—the material has already left an indelible impression on some. “As far as I know, this is the first truly conductive stretchable plastic,” Dr. Roy Kornbluh, a senior research engineer at SRI International, tells Technology Review.

Source:

Testing Their Metal
Karen Epper Hoffman
Technology Review, December 20, 2004
www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/12/wo_hoffman122004.asp