This newly developed process controls the physical properties of particle filled polymers.
Temperature is used to control the interaction between particles suspended in a liquid polymer.
Thus, a polymer-particle mixture can be reversibly stiffened by heating and made more fluid by cooling. This reversibility allows recycling of unused material by converting stiffened material back to a fluid. In addition, this process can be used to produce very fluid, Newton suspensions of particles in polymer liquids with no added dispersants or surfactants. These suspensions are unlike typical mixtures of particles polymers, which are often stiff and shear-thinning. Potential Applications Manufacturing from powdered precursor materials.