Material – Heal Thy Self
Welcome back!
What if you had a material that could heal itself in the same manner as your skin? Wouldn’t it be an astounding discovery? Well a team of researchers at the University of Illinois have done just that, using a technique to create a polymer-based system that’s self-healing. Photo Flyordiedays
An epoxy-resin base is infused with a network of interconnected channels about 200 microns in diameter. How large are 200 microns you ask? To give you an idea, a micron is 1 millionth of a meter (39.37 inches to a meter), 10-6 or 10-3 of a millimeter, or approximately 0.00003937 inches — very minute. So the answer is .0007874 of an inch.
The channels are filled with a low viscosity healing agent — such as your blood vessels carry healing material to cuts in your flesh; when you get a cut or a scrape, living cells deep in the living layers of your skin replace the old ones on the surface.
This “vascularized” substrate has a solid epoxy layer deposited on top of it. A catalyst is incorporated in this solid coating.
“Once in the crack plane the healing agent interacts with the catalyst particles in the coating to initiate polymerization, rebonding the crack faces autonomically. After a sufficient time period the cracks are healed and the structural integrity of the coating is restored. As cracks reopen under subsequent loading the healing cycle is repeated.” reports Live Science.
The concept of a ‘self-healing’ surface is part of a larger set of ideas called “autonomous materials systems.” The intent is to develop materials that can respond to their environment without additional attention from human beings.
Possibilities for applications are endless. The discovery has wide use not only here on Earth, but in space as well.
This week, the space shuttle Atlantis requires repair for a torn heat-resistant blanket before it can return from orbit. The tiles on the shuttle also require inspection. Self-healing materials for circumstances such as this could be a God-send.
Researchers are also creating further futuristic materials …
Shape-Memory Polymers Temperature Morphing
Researchers from MIT and the Institute of Polymer Research in Germany have created shape-memory polymers which can morph into three different structures — and then revert back to its original shape — in response to specific changes in temperature.
You can see the shape-shifting polymers in action in the following video that demonstrates a fastener which unfolds itself and then extends two arms to secure the structure to a plastic container. This item could be used on assembly lines to fasten small parts in difficult-to-reach areas.
Shape Memory Polymer
Another unique use for shape-memory polymers is proposed in biodegradable sutures that shape themselves.
To test this concept, researchers Dr Andreas Lendlein and Dr Robert Langer made sutures by heating fibers of their ‘shape shifting’ material to 130°F (50°C). They were then stretched to three times their length and cooled to room temperature.
These extended fibers were then used to loosely stitch a wound on a rat. When the suture was heated to 41°C — just above body temperature — the thread tightened and closed the wound, applying just the right amount of pressure. After the wound is healed, the material is designed to dissolve and is harmlessly absorbed by the body.
Now if only someone would come up with an invention that could ‘heal’ scrapes for vehicle interiors such as dashboards I’d be forever grateful! It certainly can’t be rocket science!
Tags:bizarre crack heal material odd polymer polymerization polymers rebonding science self healing shape memory shape shifting unusual weird
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That is very cool indeed. Sometimes when something breaks on me, I find myself thinking…if only it could heal itself. Maybe that will happen someday.
Cynthia, the more I find things on the net the more I’m amazed with what’s currently being accomplished in the world. It seems like almost anything one could ever imagine isn’t that far from reality.
Imagine Deborah…teeth …cars….surfboards….and even an epoxy resin facelift……could be around the corner!!!!!
Hey, I’d be all for an inexpensive means to a face lift, haha!