• AnUpstandingMember@fedinsfw.app
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    2 days ago

    Au contraire, I always wondered how one could create an item of clothing that gave the same effect. Thenn you could wear it out in public.

    • Warl0k3@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 days ago

      I looked into it at one point, but the problem was finding an optically transparent resin that would set rapidly enough to preserve the weair-phelan structure of the foam, but not set so fast you couldn’t introduce a foam agent. Sandia national labs actually experimented with this problem while trying to develop an emergency sealant for the containment vessels of nuclear reactors, and they got some pretty promising results by mixing highly volatile solvents and (iirc edit: ugh I thought I had a copy of the original patent but can’t find it. It might have been a polymer emulsion) some complex acrylate esters, then pressurizing them into a tank - the foam was rapidly formed when the whole mess was discharged from the tank and an extremely strong and sticky foam was produced as the solvent evaporated, leaving the semi-solidifed resin structure (predictably, the marines tried to eat it). Unfortunately that method produces a necessarily open cell foam, but the principal could probably be used to produce what we’re after by using a solvent that rapidly decomposes to a non-solvent state… but then I remember I don’t actually have a degree in chemistry and totally blew my foams exam and also my boobies are all soapy so what do I know lol soapy tiddies squidge squidge squidge.

      • AnUpstandingMember@fedinsfw.app
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        1 day ago

        Yeah, the squidge effect is the last great unsolved problem! I’ll get on it straight away. You wouldn"t have half a billion just laying around by any chance, my chemistry set is a bit depleted, and I blew up my last bedroom…🤣

        • Warl0k3@lemmy.worldOP
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          15 hours ago

          Damn, and have you seen the price of reagents recently?? I’ve got a dumb joke experiment, and one of the reagents is $170 / gram. Ughh.