Japanese scientists discover new form of self-healing material

A group of Japanese scientists have discovered a new form of self-healing material.

The substance, which is based on ethylene, demonstrates several useful properties such as ‘shape memory’, as well as the ability to self-repair.

The material is constructed from ethylene (the source of many types of plastics) and it represents a growing interest in self-healing materials.

Such materials have a number of advantages, ranging from equipment that needs to be situated in extreme environments to the casing used to protect mobile devices.

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Many self-healing materials are limited by the costs of manufacture, requiring complex chemistry (such as irreversible or reversible covalent-bond formation, hydrogen bonding, metal-ligand interactions, and ionic interactions) to develop them which limits their commercial potential.

Many of these materials also require an external stimulus, such as a given level of heat or a change in pressure, to activate the self-healing process.

Such materials also tend to only work under one set of environmental conditions.

The new materials, termed functionalized polyolefins, is much simpler to develop, and it does not require external factors to trigger the self-healing mechanism.

Moreover, the material can function autonomously, in terms of self-healing under various conditions.

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