The elastomer mends itself after being cut in two by a razor blade and can be manually stretched without rupture
Scientists report the first self-healing thermoset elastomer that requires no intervention to induce its repair.
Self-healing polymers mend themselves by reforming broken cross-linking bonds. However, the cross-linking healing mechanism usually requires an external stimulus.
Triggers to promote bond repair include energy inputs, such as heat or light, or specific environmental conditions, such as pH. Self-healing polymers that can spontaneously achieve quantitative healing in the absence of a catalyst have never been reported before, until now.
Ibon Odriozola previously came close when his group at the CIDETEC Centre for Electrochemical Technologies in Spain developed self-healing silicone elastomers using silver nanoparticles as cross-linkers. Unfortunately, an applied external pressure was required and the expensive sliver component disfavoured commercialisation. But now they have achieved their goal to prepare self-healing elastomers from common polymeric starting materials using a simple and inexpensive approach.
An industrially familiar, permanently cross-linked poly(urea–urethane) elastomeric network was demonstrated to completely mend itself after being cut in two by a razor blade. It is the metathesis reaction of aromatic disulphides, which naturally exchange at room temperature, that causes regeneration.
Ibon stresses the use of commercially available materials is important for industrial applications. He says the polymer behaves as if it was alive, always healing itself and has dubbed it a “terminator” polymer – a tribute to the shape-shifting, molten T-1000 terminator robot from the Terminator 2 film. It acts as a velcro-like sealant or adhesive, displaying an impressive 97% healing efficiency in just two hours and does not break when stretched manually.
David Mecerreyes, a polymer chemistry specialist at the University of the Basque Country in Spain, sees opportunities to use this elastomer to improve the security and duration of many plastic parts, for example in cars, houses, electrical components and biomaterials.
The Latest Bing News on:
Self-healing material
- Customizing a self-healing soft pump for roboton April 14, 2021 at 2:56 am
Recent advances in soft materials enable robots to possess safer human-machine ... We develop special functional liquids that merge unique properties of electrically actuation and self-healing ...
- Self-Healing Concrete Market to Develop at 34% CAGR by 2027 | Market Research Future (MRFR)on April 8, 2021 at 10:58 am
In North America, the global self-healing market is predicted to have promising growth over the forecast period. The presence of several multinational companies that deal with concrete products and ...
- Self-Healing Concrete Market to Develop at 34% CAGR by 2027 | Market Research Future (MRFR)on April 8, 2021 at 10:55 am
Key players profiled in the self-healing concrete market report include Fescon (Finland), CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V. (Mexico), Devan-Micropolis (Portugal), Sika AG (Switzerland), Basilisk (The Netherlands), ...
- Osaka University Researchers Develop Self-Healing Materials for Drier Environmentson April 6, 2021 at 5:00 pm
Self-healing polymers are a relatively new class of “smart” materials that have the ability to repair damage autonomously, much the way biological systems can heal cuts and bruises. The applications ...
- Global Self-Healing Composites Market 2021 Industry Growth Analysis by Key Players, Segments, Competitive Landscape and Forecast to 2026on April 4, 2021 at 8:39 pm
Intrinsic Self-healing Material, Ambush Self-healing Material, Major applications of the report covered are: Automotive & Transportation, Aerospace & Defense, Electrical & Electronics, Construction & ...
- Self-healing composites extend a product's lifespanon April 2, 2021 at 6:09 am
Its self-healing composites ... they have to cover it with a patch of material, heat the patch and then polish the new surface. But our composites can cut the repair time by a factor of 400 ...
- Self-healing ‘living’ robots made from frog cells could clean the world’s oceanson April 1, 2021 at 5:39 am
Swarms of tiny living robots that can repair themselves and don’t need electricity have been crafted by researchers. The microscopic machines, known as xenobots (named after the Xenopus laevis species ...
- Effect of autogenous crack self-healing on mechanical strength recovery of cement mortar under various environmental exposureon March 31, 2021 at 11:08 am
While research on self-healing of cement-based materials has recently gained considerable attention and made sizable progress, there is still ongoing debate and controversy regarding the effect of ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Self-healing material
The Latest Bing News on:
Self-healing polymers
- A benchmark for gel structures: bond percolation enables the fabrication of extremely homogeneous gelson April 14, 2021 at 2:56 am
Polymer. 2020;206:122849. Tamate R, Hashimoto K, Horii T, Hirasawa M, Li X, Shibayama M, et al. Self-healing micellar ion gels based on multiple hydrogen bonding. Adv Mater. 2018;100:1802792. Ito A, ...
- 2021 AFPM Annual Meeting Virtual Edition: Taking on petrochemical plant hurdles with networking smartson April 12, 2021 at 6:00 pm
The COVID-19 pandemic has decreased demand for a variety of end products that rely on petrochemicals, polymers and specialty polymers ... their communications to a single device. These self-healing, ...
- electric skinon April 7, 2021 at 4:59 pm
The methods used by the team – notably using a dynamically cross-linked blend of polymer semiconductor and self-healing elastomer – have created a film with a gauge factor of 5.75×10^5 at ...
- Osaka University Researchers Develop Self-Healing Materials for Drier Environmentson April 6, 2021 at 5:00 pm
Self-healing polymers are a relatively new class of “smart” materials that have the ability to repair damage autonomously, much the way biological systems can heal cuts and bruises. The applications ...
- New Polymer Makes Batteries Self-Healing, Recyclableon April 5, 2021 at 5:00 pm
The polymer strands also can break down easily and resolidify into a networked structure after damage, giving them their recyclable quality, as well as restore conductivity by self-healing, he added.
- Advances in engineering hydrogelson April 4, 2021 at 5:01 pm
self-healing, and responsive. In addition, technologies have been developed to manipulate the shape, structure, and architecture of hydrogels with enhanced control and spatial precision. Hydrogels are ...
- Self-healing composites extend a product's lifespanon April 2, 2021 at 6:09 am
Its self-healing composites ... tacked and cured just like conventional polymers. "We offer an array of fiber architectures that can be used in all sorts of applications, such as sporting ...
- Multifunctional Polymeric and Hybrid Materialson April 2, 2021 at 2:13 am
bioresponsive drug delivery and self-healing. The papers are divided into four sections, representing the principal topics of Symposium B: (1) Multifunctional Composites, (2) Stimuli-Sensitive ...
- Orally administered saccharide-sequestering nanocomplex to manage carbohydrate metabolism disorderson March 31, 2021 at 11:15 am
Here, we develop a boronic acid–containing polymer nanocomplex (Nano-Poly-BA), absorbing all saccharides into nanocomplex with the diol/boronic acid molar ratio far above 1, to prevent saccharides’ ...
- Tiny swimming robots heal back together when sliced in halfon March 25, 2021 at 1:58 pm
We've been hearing a lot lately about micro-robots, that could one day perform tasks such as capturing pollutants from the environment. Scientists have now created a sturdy batch of such bots, that ...
