Glass is the best. Glass is the friend who drives you to the airport without complaining, who helps you move your fourteen-ton couch in exchange for beer, who tells you that you’ll regret the neon green mohawk when you look back at your wedding photos. Glass goes the extra mile. Without glass we’d either live and work in rooms devoid of daylight or we’d punch holes in the walls and our homes and offices would be full of weather, confused seagulls, and the occasional ambitious praying mantis.  It would be chaos.

Now imagine if glass could go one better: if glass could get you tickets to the Superbowl, or if it let you drive its Bugatti. In my humble opinion, that day has dawned.

Image courtesy helixated.com

A group of South Korean scientists have developed new glass that “becomes more or less transparent according to the light outside, darkening to save air conditioning bills on hot days, and letting in warmth on cold days to reduce heating costs. But unlike other designs, it does so automatically, without users having to use a control to dim or brighten the effect” (Schiller).  At this point, if you’re a devoted reader of ARCHITERIALS, you’re probably thinking, “but wait wasn’t there that glass that changes color and then that other really cool irridescent glass film? Hasn’t this been DONE??”

Well …. yes.

BUT there are drawbacks to many of the existing varieties of smart glass (electrochromic glass, for instance, or suspended particle displays): “many are expensive, degrade after relatively short periods, or present environmental problems during manufacturing processes” (Schiller).  So if you’re looking for a way to reduce heating and cooling bills but don’t want to degrade the environment by more than the minimum possible, then theoretically this new smart glass might work for you.

The researchers assert that their layered assembly of polymer, counterions, and methanol creates a low-cost, stable window embettered by an ability to switch automatically from transparent to opaque in a matter of seconds (Schiller).  I assume that this is based on the amount of light that hits the glass. In case you are not familiar (I wasn’t): counterions exhibit a charge opposite to the substance with which they are associated.

Image courtesy Chang Hwan Lee, Ho Sun Lim, Jooyong Kim†, and Jeong Ho Cho

So here’s how I understand this: the researchers created an environment where nanocrystalline surface structures either scattered the incident light (producing an opaque effect) or dissolved away, allowing light to travel through the glass.  The assembly is less toxic to produce than other chemical-intensive composites, and rather than requiring an electric current to achieve a transition from opaque to transparent, the material can make the change on its own. Magnificent.

WU XING:

I have filed smart glass under WATER because it makes sense.

Cited:

Schiller, Ben. “Smart Glass Becomes More Or Less Transparent Depending On The Weather.” Fastcompany.com 10/3/11. Accessed 10/4/11. URL.

“Counterion-Induced Reversibly Switchable Transparency in Smart Windows.”  Chang Hwan Lee, Ho Sun Lim, Jooyong Kim and ,Jeong Ho Cho. ACS Nano 2011 5 (9), 7397-7403. URL.

Image courtesy en.wikipedia.org

Understandably, people were pretty much done with the plant, and outside of the occasional burst of color in springtime gardens, the Tulip carried on growing under the radar. That is, until a group of materials scientists out of the Delft University of Technology researching ultra-strong materials decided to take another look at the flower that had so fascinated their forebears.

“We had been working with minerals for so long, trying to find a way to strengthen steel,” says Delft University of Technology researcher Koenraad Van Tonder, “but we hit a dead end. The breakthrough came when I bought a bunch of what I thought were ordinary tulips for my girlfriend to apologize for forgetting our anniversary.  She threw them at me and stomped them with her feet, but we were both surprised to see that they were unharmed.”

Image courtesy www.zastavki.com

Van Tonder brought the tulips to the lab, where the team worked with specialists to analyze the plant.  It turned out that Van Tonder had purchased a tulip called “Tulipa fortis” and known among tulip aficionados for its hardiness.  The team discovered a unique cellular arrangement within the leaves along with two heretofore unknown phytochemicals, which they believe are responsible for the Tulip’s amazing strength.

Image © David Spears

Van Tonder and his team dried the leaves and pulverized them, then added hydrochloric acid to the powder. Placing the acid-powder mixture under tremendous heat and pressure, they were able to effect the formation of polymers.  The tulip plastic they produced proved to be easy to work with. “We found we could extrude the tulip polymer matrix into long chains, which could then be woven into cables,” says Van Tonder, “we are testing the cables now, but the results have been shocking. This is strong stuff.”

Using a single 1/4″ diameter woven tulip cable hooked up to a rig, the team was able to lift a grand piano. They then used two cables tied with a slip knot to tow Van Tonder’s car out of the graduate student parking lot and over to a mechanic. “The battery in my Yugo had died and I couldn’t afford to have it towed,” says Van Tonder, “but since we’ve discovered this amazing new material, I’m thinking of upgrading to a Fiat.”

The researchers are still testing the material, but early results indicate that the plastic is extremely stable, fire-resistant, and it appears not to deform in any way when subjected to changes in temperature. It’s stronger and lighter than steel, and can be molded, rotocast, and extruded into complex forms. When it comes to market, this Tulip-based plastic will revolutionize the construction industry. I think I see more tulip mania on the horizon!

WU XING:

I’ve filed Tulip Plastic under wood.

Cited:

Koenraad Van Tonder. Interview. 03/31/11. Delft University of Technology.

ARCHITERIALS is a year old now, and like most healthy, well-adjusted one-year-olds it needs to be changed constantly, crawls all over my apartment, and makes strange burbling noises.  No, really – it does.  It’s terrifying.

Over the past year I’ve profiled approximately 65 materials and learned about blogging, bacteria, and biscuits, although I must confess that the biscuts were a side project.  A delicious, buttery side project.  Anyhow, to celebrate the birthday of ARCHITERIALS and the fact that the tagline “Investigating architectural materials since 2010” has finally attained temporal legitimacy, I’ve compiled for this, the 10th day of January,  a list of 10 materials from 2010 that are generally awesome.  I’ve also summarized the awesomeness of each material in a brief paragraph, and I’ve tried to frame each one as part of a larger, sort of big-picture trend in materials science that I’m studying.  Should you click on the links and read the detailed posts about each material for more information? Definitely. 

Finally, thank you so much to those who’ve submitted information, followed, liked, and posted photos over the past year, I appreciate it more than you can imagine!  Keep the materials coming and do tell your friends if your friends seem like people who might be interested in ARCHITERIALS.

Ten Awesome Materials from 2010 and Reasons They are Awesome:

1.  Materials that can be deployed in disasters or used to improve living conditions:  Concrete Cloth

Concrete cloth is a concrete-impregnated fabric that is fire-proof, waterproof, moldable, drapeable, durable and generally fantastic.  Applications include: gabion reinforcement, sandbag defenses, ground surfacing/dust suppression, ditch lining, landing surfaces, formwork, spill containment and landfill lining, waterproofing, building cladding, boat ramps, erosion control, roof repair, water and septic tanks.  Concrete cloth solves problems you don’t even know you have, although nothing can repair your terrible relationship with your mother-in-law.   

2.  Sustainable, non-toxic materials:  Reclaimed Wood and Agricultural Fiber Panels

Kirei Board, Kirei Coco Tiles and Kirei Wheatboard made from the non-food portions (stalks and husks) of sorghum, coconut, and wheat plants.  The agricultural fiber that’s not sold by farmers for use in the manufacture of Kirei board takes up space in landfills or gets burned up and pollutes the air – therefore repurposing it cuts down on that sort of thing.  Sustainable building materials make the planet happy, and a happy planet makes for happy people. 

3.  Biodegradable materials:  Arbofoam

As it turns out, lignin can be transformed into a renewable plastic if it’s combined with resins, flax and other natural fibers. The resulting bio-plastic, called Arboform, can be thermoformed, foamed, or molded via injection machines.  It’s durable and super-precise when it’s cast, and it degrades similar to wood into water, humus, and carbon dioxide. It’s very cool stuff indeed and I’d love it if someone would send me information about a project where it’s been used.  Biodegradable materials cut down on landfill and reduce environmental pollution. 

4.  Thermoplastic/thermoelastic/thermoformed/thermo-etcetera materials:  Chemical Velcro

How could you not get excited about an adhesive 10 times stickier than Velcro and the reusable gecko-inspired glues that many research groups have been trying to perfect that comes apart when heated??!  I have been trying without success to get my hands on some of this to build demountable partition walls for my tiny apartment, and I’m not giving up.  Materials that respond to changes in temperature by changing their behavior or attributes will find widespread application in the future. 

5.  Materials that clean and sanitize themselves:  Liquid Glass

Liquid glass a coating that takes advantages of the unique properties of materials at nanoscale.  It is environmentally harmless and non-toxic, and easy to clean using only water or a simple wipe with a damp cloth. It repels bacteria, water and dirt, and resists heat, UV light and even acids.  According to manufacturers, you can spray liquid glass on everything from wood to seeds to your sneakers.  It could someday replace all the toxic cleaning products you currently use to tidy and disinfect, and it reportedly costs about 8 dollars.  Materials that clean and sanitize themselves cut down on the need for toxic chemicals and pollutants. 

6.  Materials that emit light efficiently:   White LED Lights

White LED lights emit more light than a typical 20-watt fluorescent bulb, as well as more light for a given amount of power. With these improvements, the new LEDs can replace traditional fluorescent bulbs for all general lighting applications, and also be used for automobile headlights and LCD backlighting.  Shedding light on any given subject has never been more efficient.  As we transition to alternative forms of energy we are also looking for materials that emit light without using much energy in the first place.

7.  Nanomaterials:  Gold Nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticles can be used to further increase the efficiency of LED lights.  Researchers have implanted the particles in the leaves of aquatic plants, causing the leaves to emit red light.  Theoretically, the light produced by the leaves could cause their chloroplasts to conduct photosynthesis, meaning that no additional energy source would be needed to power the process.  In fact, the leaves would actually work overtime, absorbing CO₂ at night.  Nanomaterials allow us to intervene in processes like photosynthesis with a previously unheard-of degree of delicacy.

8.  Materials that augment already useful material properties:  Bendywood 

Bendywood is wood that has been pre-compressed so that it can be easily bent by hand.  The tension that forms on the outside of a bend merely returns the plant cells to their former shape, and the wood doesn’t break.  The material is delightfully flexible and pliable.  Bendywood was developed for indoor uses such as furniture, handrails, or curved mouldings, and it shows enormous promise.  Materials like Bendywood amplify the appealing properties of familiar materials so that it’s even easier to use them to our benefit.

9.  Bio-based materials:  Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)

At the intersection of biology and solar tech, there are jellyfish that produce green fluorescent protein (GFP).  Dripping GFP onto a silicon dioxide substrate between two electrodes causes it to work itself into strands, creating a circuit that absorbs photons and emits electrons in the presence of ultraviolet light.  The electron current (aka electricity) can then be used to power your hairdryer.  I’m completely fascinated by materials that help us to blur the boundaries between biological and man-made machines.

10.  Materials that repair themselves:  Bacilla Filla

Bacilla Filla is a material that patches up the cracks in concrete structures, restoring buildings damaged by seismic events or that have deteriorated over time.  Custom-designed bacteria burrows deep into the cracks in concrete, where they produce a mix of calcium carbonate and a special bacteria glue that hardens to the same strength of the surrounding concrete.  Materials that can detect their own flaws and damage and repair themselves will revolutionize the way we build and think about building materials in the future.

Image courtesy kspark.kaist.ac.kr

A single layer of a branched polymer containing molecules that form tight hydrogen bonds with each other is grafted on the surface of a shape memory polymer, which becomes plastic (in the softened, moldable sense) when heated to 68 ºC (154.4 ºF).  Heating and softening the pieces of shape memory polymer before pressing them together ensures good molecular contact, causing millions of connections to form between the hydrogen-bonding molecules of the branched polymer layer.  When the polymer pieces cool down again and harden, they’re stuck together.  Because the branched polymer grafts act like “chemical velcro,” it takes a massive amount of force to pry the shape memory polymer pieces apart.  The situation changes, however, when the pieces are reheated; upon the heat-induced return of plasticity, the pieces can be pulled apart without any trouble.  “The researchers were able to attach and pull apart the polymers twice before losing one-third of the adhesive strength, according to a Langmuir paper published online” (Patel).  So that’s fantastic – but is this stuff actually useful?

An atomic force microscope image shows the surface of a shape memory polymer that has been treated to make a strong reusable adhesive. Credit: Tao Xie, GM Research and Development Center

The adhesive is theoretically perfect for applications requiring “a strong but alterable bond” – furniture, toys, and even buildings (Patel).  It’s not difficult to imagine a scenario where an adhesive that can un-adhere would be more convenient to use than high-strength bolts or other mechanical fasteners: stage sets, converting apartments or other rooms for use by people with disabilities, etc.  What could prove problematic however, is the heat required to stick the polymer pieces together.  And while the glue’s strength shows promise for applications in recycling and sustainable manufacturing, it’s not a true reusable adhesive because you can’t use it indefinitely (Patel).  So that’s the story on chemical velcro, and I just have one question:

Does anybody have any acetone?

WU XING:

Polymer-based adhesive fits with the Wood category because it’s literally and figuratively plastic.

Cited:

Patel, Prachi. “Super Velcro.” Technology Review 02/16/2010.  Accessed 04/29/10.  URL.

It’s probably not a good idea for another architect to be spreading the word about a “building in a bag” developed by architects and Concrete Canvas co-founders Peter Brewin and William Crawford, but it’s just such a clever and useful concept that I can’t keep it to myself.  Besides, they’re not very pretty (the buildings – I haven’t laid eyes on Peter Brewin or William Crawford) so I don’t think we’ll be officing or living in Concrete Canvas Shelters except under the most extreme circumstances:  the local design review board starts experimenting with peyote for example, or suddenly people only want buildings that look like trilobytes.

Image courtesy MaterialConneXion.com

 Image courtesy theguardian.co/uk

So what makes a 54 square-meter, “rapidly deployable hardened shelter that requires only air and water for construction” possible?  You’re probably thinking, “magic,” but in this case it’s a “groundbreaking, cement-impregnated flexible fabric known as Concrete Cloth” (Zingaro).  This stuff is fire-proof, waterproof, moldable, drapeable, durable and all around crazy-useful.  Concrete cloth is bonded to the outer surface of a plastic inner lining to create the structures.  When inflated, these materials constitute a surface optimized for compressive loading; thin-walled concrete structures are consequently both strong and lightweight.  The entire Concrete Canvas Structure (CCS) can be inflated by two untrained people in under an hour.  Twenty-four hours are required to cure the concrete but after that your CCS is ready for up to ten years of use (Source: Concrete Canvas). 

  

WU XING:

Concrete cloth is earthy and utilitarian.  It’s fireproof and waterproof.  It’s also thin and flexible – although I would guess it is not at its best in tension.  I’ve placed it in the earth and water categories although it could also be considered metal (see photo above) because it holds water.  What do you think?

Cited:
Zingaro, Alison. “Medium award for material of the year” Material ConneXion.  Accessed 01/28/10.  URL.