New Plastic Bleeds When Cut or Scratched, Heals Like Human Skin

Posted on March 27, 2012

Scientists have created a new type of plastic that mimics the human skin's ability to heal. The technology could lead to self-repairing surfaces for cell phones, laptops, cars, robots, toys, shower curtains, buckets and many other products. The new research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Professor Marek W. Urban, Ph.D., with the University of Southern Mississippi, who reported on the research, says, "Mother Nature has endowed all kinds of biological systems with the ability to repair themselves. Some we can see, like the skin healing and new bark forming in cuts on a tree trunk. Some are invisible, but help keep us alive and healthy, like the self-repair system that DNA uses to fix genetic damage to genes. Our new plastic tries to mimic nature, issuing a red signal when damaged and then renewing itself when exposed to visible light, temperature or pH changes."

With funding from the U. S. Department of Defense, Urban's group developed plastics with small molecular links or "bridges" that span the long chains of chemicals that compose plastic. When plastic is scratched or cracked, these links break and change shape. Urban tweaked them so that changes in shape produce a visible color change - a red splotch forms around the defect. In the presence of ordinary sunlight or visible light from a light bulb, pH changes or temperature, the bridges reform, healing the damage and erasing the red mark. The plastic material is capable of healing itself repeatedly.


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