New self-destructing materials may lead to vanishing ink

Scientists have created a new material that disintegrates itself at an appointed time, an advance that may pave the way for products like vanishing ink and molecules for drug delivery. The secret behind self-destructing molecules is that they would require a tiny input of energy to stay in their useful form, without it they disintegrate, researchers said. “A cell constantly needs nutrients and energy. Otherwise, it would just fall apart to its simple building blocks,” said Job Boekhoven, from the Technical University of Munich in Germany.

The molecular structures life forms uses are always “out of equilibrium,” meaning they require a constant influx of energy, such as from food, to keep functioning. Without this energy, the molecules will eventually dissociate on their own and return to a simpler state, Boekhoven said. Applying the same techniques the team created a few different types of materials that require energy input to stay in their current forms, which the scientists call supramolecular molecules.

The first material was a simple colloid made of tiny beads, each of which are just one per cent as big as the diameter of a human hair. As fuel is added, the miniature beads assemble like a string of pearls, and …read more