Scientists Develop Self-healing Polymer System
Scientists Develop Self-healing Polymer System
Engineers of University of Illinois have invented a self-developing system that repairs electrical conductivity to a cracked circuit in less time than it takes to blink. Professor Scott White of aerospace engineering and Professor Nancy Sottos of materials science and engineering had organized and led the study which is to be published soon.
According to Professor Jeffrey Moore, “It simplifies the system. Rather than having to build in redundancies or to build in a sensory diagnostics system, this material is designed to take care of the problem itself.”
The engineers from Illinois team have developed a state of the art system for self-healing polymer materials and conductive systems by dispersing tiny microcapsules on top of a gold line functioning as a circuit. As the crack enlarges, the microcapsules break open and release the liquid metal contained inside. The unique liquid metal fills in the gap in the circuit, and immediately restores electrical flow.
Further, Professor Nancy Sotto stated, “Sometimes you just can’t get to the inside. In a multilayer integrated circuit, there’s no opening it up. Normally you just replace the whole chip. It’s true for a battery too. You can’t pull a battery apart and try to find the source of the failure.”
Posted by
George Daniels
on Wednesday December 21 2011, 3:07 PM EST.
Ref: Professor Scott White et al.
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