Pollen: An Immediate Solution from Nature - Prof Subra Suresh and Prof Cho Nam-Joon
We are pleased to share the research achievement of Professor Subra Suresh, Professor Cho Nam-Joon and their team, which has been featured in Phys Org.
The research team, in collaboration with Assistant Professor Song Juha of the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, and Associate Professor Li Hua of the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, have found a way to turn pollen, one of the hardest materials in the plant kingdom, into a soft and flexible material, with the potential to serve as 'building blocks' for the design of new categories of eco-friendly materials. They used a simple chemical process akin to conventional soap-making to turn pollen grains from sunflowers and other types of plants into soft microgel particles that respond to various stimuli. They suggest that, coupled with advances in 3-D and 4-D printing, the resulting pollen-based particles might one day be turned into a range of different forms including polymer gels, sheets of 'paper' and sponges. NTU Distinguished University Professor Subra Suresh, who is also the NTU President, said: "Our NTU research team has transformed hard pollen grains beyond their natural performance limits, and converted them into soft microgel particles that alter their properties in response to external stimuli. This holds promise for a wide range of applications that are environmentally sustainable, economically affordable, and practically scalable."
The research team has published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal, Nature Communications with the title “Transformation of hard pollen into soft matter”. The research article can be found via this link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15294-w
Prof Subra Suresh (right) and Prof Cho Nam-Joon (left) together with their team have found a way to turn pollen, one of the hardest materials in the plant kingdom, into a soft, flexible material. Photo credit: NTU Singapore.
Our heartiest congratulations to Prof Suresh, Prof Cho and their team on their excellent achievement!
Media Coverage on 19 Mar:
Phys.org (US)
BioPortfolio (UK)
Scienmag (UK)
7th Space (NL)
Nature Research Device & Materials Engineering Community (US)