<p> <br />The new carbon nanotube rubber is part of a class of materials known as viscoelastic materials—which can be twisted, punched, rolled, kicked, stretched and bent, yet return to their original shape. <br /><br />The new material doesn’t shatter or melt, even under temperatures far, far beyond what rubber could endure, reports Discovery News.<br /><br />“Even at 1000 degrees Centigrade when aluminium will melt and steel will soften, the new material keeps its shape,” said Yury Gogotsi, a scientist at Drexel University.<br />“Any rubber or polymer in general will become brittle under very cold conditions and could break, but the nanotube rubber will keep bouncing,” said Gogotsi.<br /><br />“This means it could be used in everything from spacecraft to car shock absorbers,” said Roderic Lakes, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin. <br /><br />Spacecraft equipped with this material could withstand the intense cold of Jupiter’s largest moon, Titan, said Gogotsi, or the heat of the sun in space, said Lakes.<br /><br />Multiple use<br /><br />Pick up a wrinkled shirt made with carbon rubber and the fibres would return to their original shape. A shoe with a sole of super rubber would not only save a person’s knees from wear and tear, it could also help consumers save a little on their electric bill. <br /><br />Placed in a shoe or a car’s shock absorber, the material could eventually harvest and even store electricity generated from a quick walk around the block or a bumpy late night drive to the supermarket.<br /><br />However, carbon nanotube-based rubber is expensive and won’t be available to consumers for a while.<br /><br />“It was fairly simple to make, but manufacturing on a large scale has not yet been developed,” said Ming Xu, a scientist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan.<br /><br />The research was published on Friday in the journal Science.</p>
<p> <br />The new carbon nanotube rubber is part of a class of materials known as viscoelastic materials—which can be twisted, punched, rolled, kicked, stretched and bent, yet return to their original shape. <br /><br />The new material doesn’t shatter or melt, even under temperatures far, far beyond what rubber could endure, reports Discovery News.<br /><br />“Even at 1000 degrees Centigrade when aluminium will melt and steel will soften, the new material keeps its shape,” said Yury Gogotsi, a scientist at Drexel University.<br />“Any rubber or polymer in general will become brittle under very cold conditions and could break, but the nanotube rubber will keep bouncing,” said Gogotsi.<br /><br />“This means it could be used in everything from spacecraft to car shock absorbers,” said Roderic Lakes, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin. <br /><br />Spacecraft equipped with this material could withstand the intense cold of Jupiter’s largest moon, Titan, said Gogotsi, or the heat of the sun in space, said Lakes.<br /><br />Multiple use<br /><br />Pick up a wrinkled shirt made with carbon rubber and the fibres would return to their original shape. A shoe with a sole of super rubber would not only save a person’s knees from wear and tear, it could also help consumers save a little on their electric bill. <br /><br />Placed in a shoe or a car’s shock absorber, the material could eventually harvest and even store electricity generated from a quick walk around the block or a bumpy late night drive to the supermarket.<br /><br />However, carbon nanotube-based rubber is expensive and won’t be available to consumers for a while.<br /><br />“It was fairly simple to make, but manufacturing on a large scale has not yet been developed,” said Ming Xu, a scientist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan.<br /><br />The research was published on Friday in the journal Science.</p>