Ultra-high Molecular Weight Polyethylene Lamellar-thin Framework on Square Meter Scale.

A new member of low-dimensional structures with a high aspect ratio (LDHA) is introduced. For the first time, commodity polymer was processed into LDHA, which has long been stagnated by the lack of suitable processing techniques. The key to solve the current bottleneck is to overcome the trade-off between kinetic processability and thermodynamic stability. These two factors are both highly determined by intermolecular interaction level (IIL). Thus with a wide tuning range of IIL, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) was selected and investigated to break through the trade-off. Polymeric LDHA preparation needs both thinning and stiffening. By focusing on one then the other sequentially, they were realized simultaneously. Thus the over sixty-year-old material was finally thinned down by seven orders of magnitude into a 65.5 nm thick and 0.64 m2 large lamellar-thin framework (LTF). LTF exhibits a series of exceptional properties such as over-95% transparency, and seven times higher specific strength referred to steel. For the first time, cryogenic electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) was utilized to observe commodity polymers directly. We believe this new LDHA material is promising to expand the scale boundaries of both fundamental research and practical applications, not only for UHMWPE, but also for more commodity polymers to come. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.