Self-healing

​If we're ever going to get on top of the whole plastic waste problem, a partial solution may lie in substances that fix themselves when broken, instead of having to be discarded. With that in mind, many groups have been developing self-healing materials – and one of the latest functions like blood.

​It's certainly a hassle when a car gets a big paint-scratch, but smaller scratches in its clear coat are much more common and still unsightly. A new corn-based transparent finish could help, as its scratches heal up when subjected to heat.

Researchers have developed 3D-printed materials that can repair themselves after becoming fractured or punctured, which have the potential to be a game changer in the shoe industry, tire manufacture, soft robotics development and perhaps even electronics.

Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a self-healing coating that can patch up its imperfections in a matter of seconds. It can do so even when underwater or in chemically-harsh environments.​

It’s not enough to reduce our carbon output – we need to actively remove some from the atmosphere. On a small scale MIT engineers have developed a new material that can suck carbon out of the air and use it to get stronger or patch itself up.

​People with acute coughs should take honey and cough medicines before going to the doctor, official advice from the UK says. Coughs caused by cold and flu viruses, as well as viral bronchitis, should last around three weeks, and do not necessarily need a trip to the doctor, according to the advice.

Everything from electronics to concrete is getting the self-healing treatment nowadays, but the technology rarely seems to make it to commercial products. Now, Imperial Motion is pitching a self-healing tent, made out of a proprietary material it calls Nano Cure Technology (NCT).

Researchers have developed a self-healing material that could help machines repair themselves – even after “extreme mechanical damage.” Not only does the material make physical repairs, but in doing so it can restore severed electrical connections.

​If cracks in concrete can be fixed when they're still tiny, then they can't become large cracks that ultimately cause structures to collapse. It is with this in mind that various types of self-healing concrete have been developed. One of the latest utilizes a type of fungus to do the healing.

​We've looked at a number of self-healing materials over the last few years, but are these wonder products ready to leave the lab for the great outdoors? Gear company Slughaus thinks their time has come, and is running crowdfunding campaign for a clever carry bag claimed to patch up its own wounds.

To make water repellent coatings that are a self-healing, a team of scientists led by Jürgen Rühe at the University of Freiburg in Germany has come up with a superhydrophobic that sheds its outer skin like a snake to repair itself after being damaged.

Soon we could start to see a new class of waterproof products that stay hydrophobic for the long haul. That's thanks to a breakthrough by University of Michigan researchers to create a water-repellent spray-on coating they claim is hundreds of times more durable than similar substances.