In a paper published on April 20th in the journal Nature Materials, the interdisciplinary team from Cambridge report that this property is rare in natural materials and features the unique auxeticity phenomenon in the nuclei of embryonic stem cells. According to the authors, these auxeticity materials are highly ordered and can find applications in super absorbent materials such as ballistic shields.
Although it will be a longtime to see human body derived materials to be used in ballistic shield and other advanced materials, this research throws some new information on the biomimetic approach that can be followed by material scientists in developing value-added functional materials.
Dr. Seshadri Ramkumar is professor of Countermeasures to Chemical and Biological Threats, Nonwovens & Advanced Materials at Texas Tech.
Posted April 28, 2014
By Seshadri Ramkumar
LUBBOCK, Texas – A unique property of stem cells that are human master cells has been identified that may lead to wide range of applications such as bulletproof vests and super-absorbent materials.
A team of scientists from the University of Cambridge in England have spotted the property known as auxeticity, which helps in serving as fantastic shock absorbing materials. This auxeticity property results in shrinking when squeezed and expansion when stretched, which is opposite to what is experienced in materials such as elastic tapes that get thinner when pulled.
Bulletproof vests from stem cells? It may be possible.
