New Self-Healing Materials Detect When They're Damaged and Fix Themselves

By Clay Dillow Posted 12.07.2010 at 4:10 pm 9 Comments

A Thermal Image Shows the Shape-Memory System in Action Where infrared laser light – that is, heat – is applied, the material toughens and regains its original shape, strengthening cracks or tears in the material. Image courtesy of American Institute of Physics

Call it science imitating art imitating life. Arizona State researchers are working up a self-diagnosing, self-healing material that can sense the presence of damage and regenerate itself -- just like the Terminator. Like a biological structure, this “autonomous adaptive structure” could be used to develop useable composites that are self-healing, halting the progression of cracks or damage and regenerating material wherever needed to re-strengthen the structure.

The material employs “shape-memory” polymers, or materials that return to a pre-defined shape when heated to a certain temperature (for a very straightforward demonstration of how this works, see the video below). The polymers are embedded with a fiber-optic network that serves as both damage sensor and heat delivery system.

When the material sustains damage, such as a tear, an infrared laser transmits light through the fiber-optic network, delivering thermal energy to the trouble-spot. That triggers the shape-memory polymers, which are programmed to toughen up to 11 times. The shape-memory effect can also close up a crack or tear, regaining an unheard of 96 percent of the material’s original strength. Moreover, the material can self-heal while it is in operation – whatever that operation may be.

Those autonomous adaptive structures could be further advanced with some interesting shape-memory polymer research coming out of MIT this week as well. Scientists there have for the first time mathematically modeled shape-memory polymers in detail, which should make it a lot easier to design them for new applications like implantable medical devices or space materials that can be compacted into tiny packages and then automatically expanded into complex structures once they’re aloft. Or robot assassins.

[Science Daily]

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9 Comments

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Golimaaar

12/07/10 at 5:04 pm

Awesome-would be nice to see self-healing cars and planes also.

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bob clemintime

12/07/10 at 6:24 pm

Wow, future versions of this technology could be useful for so many applications. This could really increase the life of many things.

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hockart

12/07/10 at 6:27 pm

I'm pretty certain that such technology has been developed in lab prototypes and maybe (probably - let's not kid ourselves, right?) even already produced for military applications.
And I'm totally with Golimaar: this looks really friggin' cool. The question ultimately will be whether it will ever get past all the red tape involved in implementing it for us - the lowly masses in the public sector - who would benefit the most from, and so desperately need, such tech (and there's a whole lot of stuff out there that needs updating - i mean, can anyone recall the last big advance anyone made in traffic lights?). I suspect much of the gridlock occurs via bureaucratic politics, and if that issue can't be resolved first (and history provides plenty of evidence to indicate humans won't be making much headway on that front), then what hope does scientific progress ever have of making a positive impact in society (or anything else, for that matter)?
Sorry, had to get on my soapbox for a minute because this kind of stuff rankles me! Thanks for reading my diatribe! :o)

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Mathieu.LeBlanc

12/07/10 at 7:35 pm

I don't know if it's naive of me to say this ( with all the sci-fi tech we've been seeing these days) but I dream of the day technology like the above can be used to make us stop working with small twenty century problems like finding food or new energy sources and such and help us concentrate on reaching the stars!

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Brett Warkoski

12/07/10 at 9:33 pm

This I hope one day will make human repair and maintainace of buildings and the like a primative concept. A world without maintance has onec been thought imposible, but here is the first step.

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-my name here-

12/07/10 at 9:40 pm

another step closer to either total destruction, or the best power armor ever.

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javor jav

12/08/10 at 4:13 am

HOCKEY STICKS!!!!!!!

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Amateur-Hour

12/08/10 at 1:56 pm

So who's gonna fix the break-fix stuff when the stuff breaks and doesn't fix itself?

...so close to a haiku!

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Boom2387

12/12/10 at 11:40 am

The idea of tightly packed materials that automatically expand into complex structures reminds me of dragon ball z's capsule corp, hilarious.

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