{"id":22594,"date":"2016-08-10T17:31:01","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T17:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/d45h139.public.uconn.edu\/sites\/news\/?p=22594"},"modified":"2024-11-27T11:22:45","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T16:22:45","slug":"novel-smart-materials-inspired-by-sea-creatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/08\/novel-smart-materials-inspired-by-sea-creatures\/","title":{"rendered":"Novel Smart Materials Inspired by Sea Creatures"},"content":{"rendered":"
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UConn engineering Professor Luyi Sun, left, and graduate student Songshan Zeng, have created new ‘smart’ materials that can change appearance and quickly revert to their original state, just like the squid and jellyfish that inspired them. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Combined Reports<\/em>
This story originally appeared in UConn Today<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

A suite of new materials developed in the lab of UConn researcher Luyi Sun can change their appearance and quickly revert to their original state, just like the squid and jellyfish that inspired them.<\/p>\n

The research was published recently in Nature<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The materials, which are stretchable, thin, and slightly squishy, have potential applications in smart windows, display optics, and encryption technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are several marine animals that can very smartly and actively alter their skin\u2019s structure and color,\u201d says Sun, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering who is affiliated with UConn\u2019s Institute of Materials Science. \u201cIn this work, we follow two examples, squid and jellyfish respectively, to create different mechanical responsive devices.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first case, the jellyfish\u2019s skin is very flat and transparent most of the time, but by wrinkling its skin, it can cause a deformation that creates an opaque appearance.<\/p>\n

Songshan Zeng, a graduate student in Sun\u2019s lab and first author on the Nature<\/em> article, says that change is likely a defensive mechanism.<\/p>\n

In the second example, the squid can instantaneously change its\u00a0skin color by contracting the tiny muscles that encircle its pigment cells. When the muscles contract, the pigment cells expand to expose more color. When the muscles relax, the pigment cells contract and the change is reversed.<\/p>\n

Sun\u2019s research group and collaborator Dianyun Zhang, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, decided to mimic these qualities, to see if they could develop materials that would achieve these same quick, reversible changes in appearance.<\/p>\n

They began with a thin, rigid film, and then attached a thicker layer of soft, stretchable elastomer. When the layers are joined and stretched, the rigid layer develops cracks and folds. As this layer is stretched, the cracks and folds grow in size in proportion to the force exerted. As a result, the surface becomes rough and scatters the light that passes through, thereby changing the material\u2019s transparency.<\/p>\n

Zeng describes the process, \u201cWhen we stretch it, we are able to change the transparency, the surface becomes rough and will scatter light that passes through, and the UConn logo underneath the sample disappears.\u201d<\/p>\n