A cut above
US researchers borrow from human skin to develop self-healing polymer they hope can eventually be applied to mechanical fatigue in aircraft. Siobhan Wagner reports.
A polymer developed by engineers at the
is claimed to be able to mimic human skin by healing itself time after time. Its creators are hoping that the material could eventually be used in aircraft, microelectronics or anywhere polymers are subject to thermal or mechanical fatigue.
One of the project's researchers, Scott White, an aerospace engineering professor, explained that the materials work by using embedded, 3D micro- vascular networks that emulate biological circulatory systems.
'In the human body, if you get a cut in the skin, you are able to re-supply the necessary chemical building blocks to heal yourself from the capillary bed that is underneath the surface,' he said. 'The networks we have developed work in the same manner. There is an epoxy coating — the epidermis — and a capillary bed underneath, which is the substrate that re-supplies healing agent.'
The circulatory nature of the network allows it to promote healing to a damaged area multiple times.
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Comment: The UK is closer to deindustrialisation than reindustrialisation
"..have been years in the making" and are embedded in the actors - thus making it difficult for UK industry to move on and develop and apply...