日本东京大学的研究人员开发出一种以水为主要原料的凝胶状新材料，专家希望它能代替塑料广泛应用于医疗、环保等领域。
根据日本科学技术振兴机构21日发表的新闻公报，东京大学超分子化学教授相田卓三等研究人员开发的这种新材料含超过95％的水分，因此他们将这种材料命名为“水材料”。
研究人员向水里添加黏土和常用作尿不湿吸水材料的聚丙烯酸钠，在此基础上再添加由医用高分子有机物改良而成的一种黏结剂，几秒钟后就会生成一种凝胶状物质。
“水材料”的手感如同橡皮糖，在外力作用下能伸展或压缩，一旦外力撤去，又能恢复原状。即使被切断，只要迅速把断面贴在一起，仍能复原。“水材料”能耐100摄氏度的高温，强度大致相当于美容整形中常用的硅胶，如果增加黏土的比例，“水材料”的硬度能进一步增加。
研究人员期待这种新材料能用作医疗填充材料等，以减少对传统塑料制品的依赖。
这项研究成果已于21日发表在英国《自然》杂志网络版上。（生物谷Bioon.com）
With the world’s focus on reducing our dependency on fossil-fuel energy, the scientific community can investigate new plastic materials that are much less dependent on petroleum than are conventional plastics. Given increasing environmental issues, the idea of replacing plastics with water-based gels, so-called hydrogels, seems reasonable. Here we report that water and clay (2–3 per cent by mass), when mixed with a very small proportion (<0.4 per cent by mass) of organic components, quickly form a transparent hydrogel. This material can be moulded into shape-persistent, free-standing objects owing to its exceptionally great mechanical strength, and rapidly and completely self-heals when damaged. Furthermore, it preserves biologically active proteins for catalysis. So far no other hydrogels, including conventional ones formed by mixing polymeric cations and anions or polysaccharides and borax, have been reported to possess all these features. Notably, this material is formed only by non-covalent forces resulting from the specific design of a telechelic dendritic macromolecule with multiple adhesive termini for binding to clay.
