Magnetic Polymers Might Be Revolutional for Manufacturing and Medicine

14:56, January 17, 2019

Multipurpose smart materials will be a significant advancement in robotics and pharmaceutical industry

Ural Federal University scientists, together with their colleagues from Germany, are conducting research on the creation and research of magnetic polymers that can make real breakthroughs in various sectors of manufacturing and medicine.

Such polymers are composite materials consisting of nano-and micro-sized magnetic particles embedded in a polymer matrix, and are a new type of multipurpose smart materials. They can be used to improve accelerometers and early warning systems for earthquakes, as well as help in the regeneration of biological tissues and the targeted delivery of medications in the body. Besides that, they will allow for improving the qualities of shock absorbers, stabilizers, amplifiers, chemical composition and atmosphere pressure sensors, as well as surface temperature maps.

According to Andrey Zubarev, the Chief Researcher at the Laboratory of Mathematical Modeling of Physical and Chemical Processes in Multiphase Media, the physical properties of magnetic polymers are determined by the structure of the filler particles in the polymer matrix, their size, shape, concentration and magnetic properties, as well as the properties of the carrier polymer, the size of the gel cells (elastomer) and the macromolecules’ peculiarities.

‘The main goal of the research is to study the fundamental laws of internal structural transformations in magnetic polymers, including under the influence of an external magnetic field, as well as particle dynamics in these systems in alternating fields; the effects of these transformations on the physical properties and behavior of the materials being studied,’ Andrey Zubarev notes.

In this international project, a Ural Federal University’ s team is engaged in theoretical and computer research, but the experimental research will be carried out mainly by a group of scientists from the Technical University of Dresden.

‘The German team has the experience and the equipment for experimental work, which we don’t have. However, we have experience in theoretical and computer work. It turns out to be a symbiosis of experimental and theoretical groups, which is expected to be fruitful. We have been cooperating with this team since 1999 and have more than a dozen joint publications.’

The project “Magnetic Hybrid Materials with Complex Internal Interaction” will receive yearlong support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the German research community. The amount of the grant received by scientists is 4 million rubles.