Materials

Finding a scratch on your car is a special kind of heartbreak, but in the future they might be gone before you even notice. Scientists in Korea have developed a coating that self-heals scratches in as little as 30 minutes when exposed to sunlight.

Engineers at the University of Vienna have developed a new composite material that makes an efficient filter for removing organic pollutants from water. The system uses super-porous “nano-sponges” embedded on a sheet of graphene.

The production of cement is a major source of carbon emissions, so the less of it that's used, the better. A new study could help, as it shows that cement can be made much stronger with the addition of material derived from waste shrimp shells.

Construction is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Flinders University researchers have now developed a polymer made out of industrial waste that can be formed into building bricks that bond together without needing any mortar.

A large percentage of a building’s energy usage is consumed by heating and cooling, but a new dynamic shading system could help. Inspired by the skin of krill, the system uses cells of blooming pigment that can block light on demand.

A powerful new adhesive can grip strongly in extreme temperatures, from the deep freeze of liquid nitrogen to the sweltering heat of an oven. Better yet, it can be broken back down into its component parts and reused without losing strength.

Scientists studying the makeup of limpet teeth have drawn inspiration from the way they form to create a composite biomaterial with extreme strength that could provide a more sustainable alternative to high-performance materials such as Kevlar.

Plastics are tough, which is great when in use but not so good in the environment. Scientists have developed a new PET-like plastic derived from waste plant matter that can be chemically recycled or degrade into harmless sugars in the environment.

Mussels have long been known for the adhesive they produce, which allows them to cling to rocks. The protein responsible has now been utilized in a new skin grafting technique, which reportedly results in little to no scarring.

Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder claim to have uncovered a greener form of cement production by tapping into a species of cloudy microalgae that naturally produce limestone particles through photosynthesis.

Scientists at the University of Buffalo experimenting with next-generation battery designs have demonstrated how magnetism might be used to bring a new level of precision to the way we monitor a battery's state of charge.

In order to spread to other host trees, the parasitic mistletoe plant has very sticky seeds that cling to bird feathers, bark, and other materials. According to a recent study, the "glue" on those seeds could inspire new biomedical adhesives.

Two years ago, scientists at the University of Bristol discovered that some moths evade bats via sound-absorbing scales on their body. New research now suggests that wallpaper inspired by those scales could be used to block out unwanted noises.

Scientists have created a new form of bioplastic that offers stability during use and exciting upcycling potential, relying on a vanilla bean extract to self-destruct on command in response to a specific wavelength of light.

We've been hearing a lot about synthetic skins made for robotic hands, which would give the devices human-like qualities. Scientists in Japan have gone a step further, by covering a robotic finger in a self-healing skin made from live human cells.