Posted 04.20.2011 at 1:07 pm
7 Comments
Self-Healing Materials
Materials like self-healing paint and self-healing polymers could soon make a range of goods more resilient, and in some cases safer.
Jeffrey Simms Photography via Flickr
Self-healing materials are a thing of the future, but certainly not a distant future. For instance, NASA plans to wrap airliners in a self-healing skin within the next 20 years, and things like flexible, self-healing concrete have already been demonstrated, albeit only in the lab. Now researchers at Case Western Reserve University, along with partners in the U.S. and Switzerland, have demonstrated self-healing polymers that rejuvenate themselves after just a minute under UV light.
The key was finding polymers that are really small that can be coaxed into pretending like they’re really big through molecular interactions. Assembled under a mechanism known as supramolecular assembly, these self-healing polymers are composed of small molecules assembled into long, polymer-like chains using metal ions as a kind of “molecular glue” (normal polymers consist of very long chain-like molecules composed of thousands of atoms held together by stronger molecular bonds).
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Science, Clay Dillow, materials science, modern materials, polymer chains, polymers, self-healing, VideoInitial tests showed that the researchers could scratch a polymer coated surface in the same place again and again, and it would repeatedly “heal” in the presence of UV light, leaving behind no evidence of the damage. See for yourself below.
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if they could make self healing condoms we would be set!!
Funny, they show the cars and talk about them as being able to repair themselves. But the #1 opposition to such a technology would actually be, the automotive industry.
^^^yeah if a cars surface will self heal than the automotive company will not make any money off of it. this is another reason why cars are not meant to last forever. we have the technology to make cars "unscratchable" but the automotive industry wouldn't get revenue off of it.
THIS STUFF IS WEAK AND CAN BE USED FOR OTHER APPLICATIONs.
KESTREL CAR how about that. Suppressed information. The hemp car has been out for over 45 years .. Thats right but there is no money to be made there. We should have laws that help us as humans to proceed not walk backwards. like cure for cancer cant come out with it because there is no money to be made from it.
Many things have been invented but because no money is able to be made then it doesnt surface. THERE SHOULD BE LAWS AGAINST THIS. THIS IS SOMETHING THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ADDED TO OUR CONSTITUTION.
BENEFITING MANKIND NOT MANKINDS POCKET.
THINK OF YOUR CHILDRENS CHILDREN CHILDREN. GREED IS ALL AROUND US.
LOOK UP FREE ENERGY AND HOW THEY KILLED THAT ONE GUY FOR HIS INVENTION.
Assuming it works as well as they are hoping it will buying a paint through a 3rd party company would be more likely than car companies doing it direct. But using this as an added perk in higher end cars, stock, would only make the cars seem a better value. It is not like it can repair actual damage to the car, dents are other things will still need repair. Such pessimism in these comments.
Maybe I will be wearing self healing body armor by the time I retire. What a cool technological age we live in. The ramp up of technology has been climbing so fast over the last 50 years its astounding.
@Army Juggernaut
and to think whats in store for us in 100 years. that is if we dont destroy ourselves first. how about skin lotion that heats skin instantaneously? or drinks that regenerate broken bones and lost limbs?