Organic crystals might be the key to meeting the energy conversion needs of advanced technologies.
While these dynamic materials were previously thought to be fragile, a team of researchers at the NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Smart Materials Lab have discovered that some organic crystals are mechanically very robust, and able to serve as efficient and sustainable energy conversion materials for robotics and electronics.
In the article published by the journal Nature Communications, the team led by NYUAD Professor of Chemistry Panče Naumov explains the process of developing a record-breaking material, which can change shape without losing its ordered structure.
This new organic crystalline material can expand and contract over half of its length (51 per cent) repeatedly, over thousands of cycles, without any deterioration, in a similar way to plastics and rubber. It was also able to undergo this process at room temperature, unlike other materials that require...