Self-healing material to extend lifetime of devices: study

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Scientists at a U.S. university have created a material that can independently heal the damage caused by mechanical wear, hence extending service life of devices.

The material is a transparent and soft rubber-like ionic conductor which can stretch 50 times of its original length, said researchers at the University of California, Riverside.

They found that the self-healing process of the material would finish within 24 hours at room temperature after being cut.

"The design of this self-healing polymer uses ion-dipole interactions as the dynamic motif," according to the study report published Friday on the Advanced Materials journal.

The newly-designed material combined a polar, stretchable polymer with a mobile, high-ionic-strength salt.

The ion-dipole interaction mechanism used forces between charged ions and polar molecules that are highly stabile under electrochemical conditions, according to the university's official website.

Besides solving the instability problem caused by electrochemical reactions of non-covalent bonds, the material could also improve the decaying performance of the materials within the machinery.

The report especially noted the advantages of using the material to electrically activate transparent artificial muscles, while scientists have begun to explore the potential applications in other fields like robotics, medical research and so on.

For example, the ionic conductor can help extend the lifetime of lithium ion batteries used in electronics and electric cars, while the environmental monitoring biosensors can also be improved. Enditem