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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Dressed for success: soft gel cloaked in membrane can snap brick

The engineered material takes inspiration from the way plants grow.
A young green-leaved tree plant grows through a crack in a concrete floor.

A membrane-wrapped gel exerts a force similar to a plant’s turgor pressure, which allows a seedling to crack hard surfaces. Credit: Thichaa

Hydrogels are absorbent, liquid-based materials that don’t dissolve in water. They have promising medical and engineering uses — but they’re fragile. Now, materials scientists are drawing inspiration from plants to remedy that1.

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Nature 604, 600 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01053-y

References

  1. Na, H. et al. Science 376, 301–307 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

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