The Search for a Phaser Resistant Polyduranide

Another CHEMTECH piece (August 1997 & there called "Chemistry: the Next Generation). The piece dates from what I reckon was the heyday of Star Trek - not only the TNG films, but also DS9 and Voyager.

"It’s a dilithium initiated living polycyanoacrylate, Captain! Perhaps it can promote tissue regeneration"

Sounds like Next Generation technobabble, but in fact it’s perfectly reasonable polymer chemistry. Books have been written on the physics of Star Trek, its Warp Drives and Transporters, but far less attention has so far been given to the advances that will be made in plastic materials. It’s going to be an exciting few centuries for those of us in the field.

I ought to set a few things straight first. I’m only slightly trekky - I don’t speak Klingon, I doubt if I could name more than a small fraction of the planets the Enterprise has visited, and I don’t claim encyclopaedic knowledge of 24th century macromolecules. I would be delighted to learn more from hard-core fans. However, the little that I have picked up, plus what I know about current technology suggest that some interesting breakthroughs are in store.

Let’s start with dilithium crystals. Such compounds are already known, and used, at least on the experimental scale, to make fancy "living" polymers - so called because the polymerisation reaction doesn’t stop unless you deliberately terminate it. Presumably the invention of the warp drive will push up the prices of the compounds, and make them too expensive for such mundane applications.

Apparently, according to Data, "certain cyanoacrylates" emit eichner radiation, which itself promotes plasma plague. Very nasty, and especially worrying for my colleagues over in Superglue Lab, for it is certain cyanoacrylates that make up instant adhesives. They have to be careful already to keep them away from dilithium crystals - they would go off "like a rocket". Sorry.

Eichner radiation would also be worrying in our hospitals, now that surgeons are experimenting with cyanoacrylate tissue adhesives to replace stitches. An outbreak of plasma plague in their wards is the last thing they would want. On the other hand, there are going to be other useful advances in polymer chemistry in the medical field. Polyadrenaline, for instance. That sounds like a powerful drug. Pity I haven’t a clue how to make it - I could patent it up and live on the royalties.

I mentioned Data before. Some fine new macromolecules there - he contains large quantities of tripolymer composites and bioplast sheeting. I’m not quite sure what the exact properties are, but at least 20th century technologists have some clues as to how to make such biomimetic materials. Much trickier is the molecular matrix, for preparing transparent aluminium. Plexicorp are due to "discover" this, with a little help from a time-travelling Scotty, in the next few years. Buy the shares now.

The biggest volume new plastic is going to be polyduranide. The entire hull of the Enterprise is made from it. The manufacturers must have thought it was Christmas when Star Fleet specified it. But as the title of this article suggests, it has its limitations. It gets eaten up by phaser blasts or photon torpedoes, which means that in battle huge amounts of energy have to be diverted to the shields. If we polymer chemists could make some advances there we would really have the Borg and the Dominion worried.