Israeli and American Material Scientists Accidentally Discover Self-Assembling, Self-Healing Glass.
A team of scientists from Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University, both located in Israel, collaborated with colleagues at the California Institute of Technology in the United States. They discovered that mixing a specific type of peptide (a chain of amino acids that helps synthesize proteins) with water creates a new type of glass.
Upon investigating the properties of this new glass, they found that it has self-assembly capabilities, along with self-healing and adhesive properties despite being very rigid.
The scientists believe this new glass could be used to create glass panels and coatings in the production of hydrophilic surfaces, or to manufacture highly precise items such as optical lenses.
Another advantage of this glass is that it requires significantly less energy to produce compared to most commercially used glass types.
Glass created by mixing a specific peptide with water – (Photo: Nature).
Cracked peptide glass self-healing – (Photo: Nature).
The research team stated that additional experiments could help uncover many other applications for this new glass.
The study was published in Nature Communications.
Accidental Discovery According to phys.org on June 13, researchers found the “formula” for creating this new glass quite by accident. They were investigating the potential of using short peptides as substitutes for traditional components of macromolecules. While studying a dipeptide molecule with two phenylalanine residues, they inadvertently discovered that mixing it with water resulted in a type of amorphous supramolecular glass that could self-assemble as the water evaporated at room temperature. The most surprising aspect was that the self-assembly of peptides in previous studies led to the creation of materials with crystalline structures – which are not transparent and thus cannot resemble glass. However, the “product” in this latest research turned out to be transparent, similar to traditional glass. |
