This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Ice is cheap, abundant and surprisingly strong. But it has one major weakness: Cracks can race through it, causing it to shatter without warning.
Now, scientists have developed a new material that could overcome that problem. Called BioPykrete, the reinforced ice is about 10 times stronger than ordinary ice and can absorb roughly 70 times more energy before breaking. Rather than shattering suddenly, it bends and breaks more gradually, a quality that could one day make it useful as a building material in some of the coldest places on Earth.
The research, published in Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, was led by Prof. Ido Braslavsky of Hebrew University's Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
The idea of reinforcing ice is not new. During World War II, researchers experimented with Pykrete, a mixture of ice and wood pulp that was stronger and slower to melt than ordinary ice. The team took that idea down to the molecular level.
They mixed ice with cellulose nanocrystals, extremely small, stiff particles made from cellulose, the natural material that gives plants their structure. As the mixture froze, the particles formed a three-dimensional network around microscopic sections of ice. The scientists then designed a protein that could attach to both materials.
One part of the protein binds to ice, while the other binds to cellulose. Acting like a molecular glue, the protein helps hold the entire structure together. "We wanted to go beyond simply mixing fibers into ice and instead control how the different materials connect at the molecular level," Braslavsky said.
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