Shen Puts High-Tech Spin on Polymers

Strong, lightweight, thermal nanofibers could be used in many industries. Sheng Shen is Carnegie Mellon University's Spiderman. When the associate professor of mechanical engineering talks about his work with polymer nanofibers, he compares it to a spider spinning its web. "Just as a spider synthesizes silk from protein polymer to form a fiber with strength similar to high tensile steel, polymers can be spun and drawn to form high-strength materials with exceptionally high thermal conductivity," said Shen, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Shen and his team have developed a polymer nanofiber that is strong, lightweight, thermally conductive, electrically insulating and bio-compatible. They accomplished all of this in a single polymer fiber strand measuring less than 100 nanometers. Mechanical Engineering faculty member Sheng Shen describes his work developing low-density, multi-functional materials that have a broad range of applications in aerospace, automotive and biomedical technologies.