A palladium-based oily liquid that turns to jelly when blasted with sound waves could prevent buildings from collapsing during earthquakes, new research has found.

High-frequency sound waves can turn the liquid into a solid substance – but no one has worked out exactly what causes this effect.

The reversible reaction could benefit shock absorbers in cars, lubricants in robotic joints or even temporarily solidify fuels and paints so they do not leak during transport.

It is even hoped the new reaction could be used to make building dampers to help absorb the force of earthquakes.

"The sol-to gel transition itself is a very common phenomenon," explained chemist Takeshi Naota from Osaka University in Japan to the New Scientist.

"But," he added, up until now there was "no method to achieve instant, remote and reversible control between stable liquid and stable gel phases at the same ambient temperature."

He has found that small organic molecules containing palladium, when dissolved in acetone, produce an oily solution which solidifies when blasted with ultrasound waves at a frequency of 40 kilohertz.

A blast of heat is enough to then change the gel back into a liquid.

Although chemists are yet to work out exactly why this works Naota believes the shape of the small organic molecules helps to achieve the result.

He feels the vibration caused by the sound waves means the overlapping hydrocarbon chains of the organic molecules become locked together by strong attractive forces known as stacking interactions.