It’s missing some properties that would be needed to make it a steel-killer, but it’s an interesting development none-the-less.
Yahoo! News
Scientists have developed a transparent new plastic as strong as steel and as thin as a sheet of paper, according to a study released Thursday by Science magazine.
Made out of clay and a non-toxic glue similar to that used in school classrooms, the composite plastic is biodegradable and requires very little energy to produce, lead researcher Nicholas Kotov said.
It takes a few hours to build up the 300 layers needed to make a thin sheet of the plastic as the robot’s arm dips in an out of vials of glue and a dispersion of clay nanosheets.
The resulting sheet is a meter square, so it’s not exactly fast to make, but the technology could probably scale and be replicated for faster production.