Man-made materials have revolutionised the last century of human existence, especially plastics, which lead to the throwaway society we now find ourselves living in. But will a new invention, that of a self healing rubber compound, have anywhere near as much impact?

French researchers have now managed to invent a material which can repair itself even when sliced completely in two. The material has yet to be named by its creators, but is a form of rubber, albeit an artificial one created from vegetable oil and a component found in urine.

The ability of the material to self heal is down to engineering the molecules inside so that even when they are cut, the two opposing surfaces retain a strong chemical attraction to each other.

Dr Ludwik Leibler, who headed the research, explained to the BBC that normal rubber "is actually a single molecule with billion upon billions of smaller units chemically welded together to form a giant tangled network." The problem comes when you "break a rubber (or most other solids), and the chemical welds - known as covalent bonds - are also broken."

So Dr Leibler, of the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution (ESPCI) in Paris, and his team, set about creating a rubber like material using small molecules instead.

This was achieved by replacing the covalent bonds found in rubber with hydrogen bonds. Though weaker, these act like hands on neighbouring molecules that clasp together until broken, when they simply let go.

According to Dr Leibler, this means "not only that the new rubber could be recycled and remoulded many times over, but that if separated by a cut or break, the chemical hands at the fresh surfaces would still be waving about ready to bind again."

It's a pretty amazing invention to see in action, which you can do by watching a demonstration on the BBC website, but the problem comes with knowing how to utilise the new material.

The obvious uses are in self healing seals, so that if for instance a compression joint was to be punctured by a nail, the hole would automatically repair itself.

Dr Leiber also claimed that the material could be used in some more fun but slightly less practical ways:

Why not use it to make children's toys? Children are always breaking their toys. Wouldn't it be nice if you could put them back together so easily?"

I can see this being developed in to a commercial product, and the amount of uses for it could be phenomenal. Whether its ever used to its full potential however, is a matter for the inventors and manufacturers to decide. It is pretty cool though.

Entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 2:08 pm under Strange.  Print This Post