Polymer from Russia amazes the world

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev is awarding the President Prizes of 2009 to the best young Russian scientists on Monday, the Russian Science Day. Among the winners of the prizes is senior fellow at Lomonosov Moscow State University, Dr. Alexei Bobrovsky. The prize is awarded for his achievements in the development of multipurpose photochromic liquid-crystal polymers for the Information Technology.

 "Alexei is a talented person in chemistry," says the scientist who has guided his work, head of the laboratory for chemical transubstantiation of polymers, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Valeri Shibaev. He studied in a special group that started working on the development of new polymers. These polymers are used to make films, fibres and coatings, but when additional chemicals are added to them they acquire new properties, says Professor Shibaev.

"This is fundamental scientific research," says Professor Shibaev. "We all are aware of liquid-crystals that are used to make television screens and computer displays. But there is a compound called liquid-crystal polymers the colour of which changes when light falls on it. For one, the colour of clothes made out of this material changes when different radiation fall on them. In short, the clothes have one colour when light falls on them and a different colour when they are under a shadow," Professor Shibaev said.  

The materials developed by Alexei Bobrovsky can be used to protect information and unique goods with the help special stickers made out of polymer films. It's impossible to see what is written on the sticker with the naked eye, but when a special light is projected on it, the code of the good or securities becomes visible. This means one can easily differentiate what is true and what is falsified. Most likely, the Russian goods protected using this method will appear in shops in the near future. A Russian Scientific Research Centre has shown keen interest in this new technology. According to Professor Shibaev, the material has other properties.

"Information can be written on this material in various colours," says Professor Shibaev. "Some other information can be written on it using a different colour, and every image can be seen only when relevant colour of light falls on it," Professor Shibaev said.

According to him, Alexei Bobrovsky is a purposeful and self-disciplined person. He published over 20 articles when he was doing his post graduate thesis. And these are very popular in Russia and abroad. Music and astronomy are Alexei Bobrovsky's hobbies.

Among the other winners of President Prize are radio-physicist, Pavel Belov, bio-physicist, Ekaterina Shishatskaya, and chemist, Alexei Knyazev.