Merry Mechanochemical Christmas

The secret is out!  Mechanochemistry is behind Rudolph’s ability to save Christmas.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AorspcZpCu0[/youtube]

The hammer impact stretches a little plug of PDMS, which in turn transfers force to spiropyran cross-linkers and pulls them open into their purple merocyanine form. Credit to Doug Davis, Jeff Moore, Nancy Sottos, Scott White and friends at UIUC for developing spiropyran as a mechanochrome.  No actual reindeer were harmed in the making of this video.

Happy Holidays from the Craig Group!