When we look at the glassblower, we don't realize just how unique his material is: glass changes from a liquid to a solid state under the action of heat in a very gradual way, allowing it to be shaped at will without very precise temperature control or the need for molds. Can you think of other materials that offer engineers and designers the same creative possibilities? Our team has designed vitrimers, organic materials consisting of a molecular network capable of reorganizing itself without changing the number of links under the action of heat. They go from liquid to solid, or vice versa, following the same law as glass. However, depending on the composition chosen, the resulting material can be either hard or soft and elastic. In both cases, it has the same qualities of lightness, strength and insolubility as the thermoset resins or rubbers currently used in the most demanding applications, but, compared with the latter, it offers the advantage of being shapeable at will, repairable and recyclable under the action of heat. Used as a base for composites, it could compete favorably with metals. Thanks to the new concept of vitrification by controlling the reorganization of a molecular network, vitrimers constitute a new class of polymeric materials: they are insoluble like thermoset resins or rubber, but malleable under heat like thermoplastics. They should find wide applications in sectors as diverse as electronics, automobiles, construction, aeronautics and printing, all the more so as the epoxy chemistry developed by the laboratory calls on components already widely used in these industries.
17:00 - 18:00
