Self-Healing Material
Mimicking how our body responds to cuts, scientists work to create self-healing materials.
In many ways, when compared to manufactured objects, we are shockingly impermeable. We fall down, cuts and scrapes happen but unlike electronics, these accidents don’t short-circuit our entire bodies. Our bones heal, our cuts stop bleeding and if we get a virus our immune system usually can handle it alone.
Inspired by this, scientist Nancy Sottos, Ph.D., professor of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign says, “in self-healing materials what we have tried to do is mimic that synthetically.” The video describes two systems; micro-capsules which, when broken essentially bleed, and then re-harden together re-bonded; or a micro-vascular system, which pumps a liquid-form of the material to where cracks have formed, which then hardens within minutes to equal or greater strength.
“Most people would like their cellphones or electronics to be self-healing, that is a little ways off,” but Sottos predicts that, “the application that will come out first, and a very useful one, is to have self-healing paint or coatings.” Could the use of paint mixed with micro-capsules become the magical anti-aging process to create eternal artworks? In the future, could public artworks no longer be limited in interactivity because any wear and tear would self-heal? Whatever the future of these materials, they will certainly open up new doors for architects, designers and artists.
