Heal thyself—again and again
By Sarah Webb
A new material can repair repeated damage at the same spot without assistance from external factors such as heat or pressure, a team of chemists and engineers reports.
The team had previously created self-healing materials by encapsulating a healing agent in pockets set just below their surfaces. A crack in the material would rupture some of the pockets, allowing the healing agent to flow into the fissure. There, the agent would encounter an embedded catalyst that would cause it to harden and repair the breach (SN: 2/17/01, p. 101).