MIT engineers create plastic that is “stronger than steel” | 2DPA-1

Using a novel polymerization process, chemical engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have invented a plastic that is twice as strong as steel, and that they believe could one day be used as a building material. The new material, named 2DPA-1, is light and mouldable like plastic but it has a strength and resistance that the researchers have likened to steel and bulletproof glass. This new material is a two-dimensional polymer that self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers, which form one-dimensional ‘spaghetti’ like chains. Before now, it had been believed that it was impossible to induce polymers to form 2D sheets. To understand why scientists thought this, we first need to understand how polymers are formed. Polymers consist of chains of building blocks called monomers. These chains grow by adding new molecules onto their ends. Once formed, polymers can be shaped into three-dimensional objects using injection moulding. For years Polymer scient