A group of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed something that seems fit for a “Mission Impossible” movie – polymers that disappear on command.

Developed for the US Department of Defense, the material is tough enough to transport packages into hostile territory and then vaporise upon completion of a military mission. Fashioned into a rigid-winged glider and with a nylon-like parachute fabric for airborne delivery, it can cross distances of over 100 km.

The researchers incorporated a photosensitive additive that absorbs light to catalyse depolymerisation. The key to making the polymer disappear is a “ceiling temperature”, where above this temperature, it will break down into its component monomers. Standard plastics, like polystyrene, have a ceiling temperature above ambient temperature and are thus very stable. But with low ceiling-temperature polymers, depolymerisation can happen at the flick of a light switch.

A non-military application for this technology? Perhaps it could be used to write to-do lists on. And off they go all these tasks, gone with the sun.