A plastic that heals itself! Yes, it happens exactly like the skin of our body. Hats off to Scott White and his fellow scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. But, how does this happen?
When the polymer splinters, filled with a liquid agent called dicyclopentadiene flow into the crack. Dicyclopentadiene are invisible capillary-like microcapsules. With this liquid’s contact with the powdery catalyst embedded throughout, the two chemicals congeal and eventually harden. This sounds pretty interesting.
Just a 100 microns fracture length and the whole process is triggered. Repairing itself, the plastic amazingly regains up to 75 percent its original strength! Just two years to go, and this regenerative material will hit the market.
The sporting goods and automotive industries will be the first spheres where this material will be used. Once successful, it will then hit the aerospace, microelectronics, and medical sectors. So, gear up industries to welcome this miracle if your every component is mission critical.
Via: transstudio
