Rubber has become a pretty common material that we can find almost everywhere. It is used on toys, wheels, appliances, decorations, and many others.
Little did we know, rubbers can have more uses than just being elastic.
This material has inspired a study that led to the development of a new "elasto-magnetic" material that absorbs and releases a tremendous amount of energy.
A team of researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst has invented a rubber-like solid substance that has useful benefits in managing energy.
Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, their paper entitled "Phase-transforming metamaterial with magnetic interactions" featured an "elasto-magnetic metamaterial" with surprising qualities that promises a wide array of benefits.
According to Slashdot, this newly engineered material can absorb and release very large quantities of energy, which can allow us to supply more power to robots without having to use additional energy or, as their paper puts it, "dissipate energy much more quickly."
That offers a new method to manage energy, indeed!
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How Did They Come Up With It?
The invention was inspired by the qualities of rubber.
The researchers used a common trick or habit that we do with rubber bands as their example.
When we were younger, we used to pull a rubber band on one of its ends and release it suddenly, which then causes it to fly across the place.
This happens because the energy stored on the rubber was then released.
As you may also notice, when someone pulled a rubber on its end and released it to hit your skin, it will hurt even though the rubber used was just a short piece of material found everywhere.
According to Professor Alfred Crosby, there is much more to expect when we do this to a super rubber band: pull its end and release, it will fly for miles.
Based on the report, when we stretch the rubber band past a certain point, we can activate extra energy that is stored in the material.
With this idea, they were able to introduce a promising new metamaterial that combines an elastic, rubber-like substance with tiny magnets embedded in it.
Creating a Metamaterial
This metamaterial is a substance that they engineered in order to have a property that we cannot find in naturally occurring materials.
Based on their paper, this elasto-magnetic material that they developed displays "phase transformation behaviors" as a result of "nonlinear interactions between internal elastic structures and embedded magnetic domains."
Taking advantage of what they call "phase shift," this invention amplifies the amount of energy the material can release or absorb.
Meanwhile, the team has also mentioned that the metamaterials developed in their study will provide a platform for "high-performance materials in energy storage and release."
Meanwhile, as explained by SciTech Daily, energy will either be released or absorbed when a material shifts its phase.
Moreover, phase shifts are also not limited to changes between liquid, solid, and gaseous states.
A phase shift also happens, for instance, from solid to another state such as gas or liquid.
Phase shift is important to this invention because when it releases energy, it can serve as a power source.
The researchers have explained that by embedding tiny magnets into the elastic material, the phase transitions of this metamaterial can be controlled.
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