Zhejiang University Scientists Synthesize “Elastic Ceramic Plastics”

On June 8, 2023, Professor Tang Ruikang and researcher Liu Zhaoming from the Department of Chemistry at Zhejiang University announced the synthesis of “elastic ceramic plastic”. This is a new material that combines hardness and softness, with ceramic like hardness, rubber like elasticity, and plastic like plasticity.
Is this transparent material plastic or ceramic? It is an elastic ceramic plastic prepared by the Zhejiang University team.
“Elastic ceramic plastics” is the first time to realize the combination of organic compounds and inorganic Ionic compound at the molecular level, so as to obtain new materials with properties different from previous materials. In traditional cognition, the preparation methods of materials in the field of Inorganic chemistry and Polymer chemistry are completely different. It is reported that the “elastic ceramic plastic” polymerized by hybrid molecules in the laboratory is a small yellow button like body. In its molecules, the inorganic ionic bond network and the organic Covalent bond network are intertwined and interspersed, which not only has the properties of inorganic materials, but also retains the characteristics of organic materials, and has a certain hardness and elasticity. When a certain external force is applied, the inorganic skeleton can provide hardness and strength; When the external force is large and elastic deformation occurs, the entire skeleton deforms, producing a buffering effect; After removing external forces, the organic skeleton exerts a rebound effect, restoring the network to its original state. In the past, organic-inorganic fusion was a simple superposition, just like pouring inorganic powder into the organic framework and stirring evenly. If you subdivide layer by layer, the molecular level is still “you belong to you, I belong to me”, just the mixture of the two, “this experiment produced new molecules that were not in the past, obtained a new structure, and broke the barrier between organic compounds and inorganic Ionic compound at the molecular scale.”
Zhejiang University scientists have compared the performance of this new material with ceramics, rubber, plastics, metals, and others. It has achieved high scores in hardness, rebound, strength, deformation, and processability. It not only has marble level hardness, but also has the elasticity of rubber and the plasticity of plastics. There are also characteristics that traditional plastics do not have: they do not soften after heating.