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Self-Healing Plastic Skin

Posted by kdawson on Tue Jun 12, 2007 06:58 AM
from the polymer-heal-thyself dept.
Robotics Science
An anonymous reader writes "Scientists have developed a form of plastic skin that can heal itself when damaged. The material relies on an underlying network of vessels — similar to blood capillaries — that carry a healing agent to areas on the material's surface that sustain damage. Unlike previous self-healing systems that relied on capsules of agent buried in the polymer and which became depleted after one use, the new system can respond to damage at the same point many times over."
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[+] News: Smart Rubber Promises Self-Mending Products 122 comments
An anonymous reader writes "French scientists have developed a new rubber that can heal itself after being cut or broken. If two broken ends of the material are pushed together, and left for an hour, they join to become just as stretchy as before. There is even a video of the supposed creation in action. 'Regular rubber gets its strength from the fact that long chains of polymer molecules are coupled, or "crosslinked," in three different ways: through covalent, ionic, and hydrogen bonding between molecules. Of these three bond types, only the hydrogen bonds can be remade once a material is fractured, although normally there are not enough hydrogen bonds for the rubber to re-couple in this way. The solution devised by Leibler and colleagues is to simply get rid of the ionic and covalent bonds. They developed a transparent, yellowy-brown rubber in which crosslinking is performed only by hydrogen bonds.'"
[+] Self-Healing System Applied to Aviation 76 comments
ScienceDaily is reporting that the self-healing materials are being used in some new aircraft designs. We covered several self-healing systems in the past months, but it is nice to see it starting to find practical applications. "This simple but ingenious technique, similar to the bruising and bleeding/healing processes we see after we cut ourselves, has been developed by aerospace engineers at Bristol University, with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). It has potential to be applied wherever fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are used. These lightweight, high-performance materials are proving increasingly popular not only in aircraft but also in car, wind turbine and even spacecraft manufacture. The new self-repair system could therefore have an impact in all these fields."
[+] Hardware: New Take on Self-Healing Polymer Could Mean Scratch-Free Screens 67 comments
techprophet writes to mention that a new take on self-healing plastic could provide a long-term solution to scratched screens. The new polymer, developed by scientists at the University of Southern Mississippi, uses UV light to reform bonds between molecules rather than embedded healing agents of similar systems. "At the core of their design is polyurethane, which is an elastic polymer that already has decent scratch resistance. To enhance its ability to withstand mechanical damage, Ghosh and Urban added two more components, OXE and CHI. OXE has an unstable chemical structure (a four-membered ring containing three carbons and one oxygen) that makes it prone to being split open. CHI is UV sensitive. The idea is that, if the polyurethane gets damaged by a scratch, the unstable ring structure of OXE will open to create two reactive ends. Then, UV light can trigger CHI to form new links with the reactive ends of OXE and thereby fix the break in the polymer."
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Self-Healing Plastic Skin 50 Comments More /

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  • Plastic skin... (Score:5, Funny)

    by smitty_one_each (243267) * on Tuesday June 12 2007, @06:59AM (#19476091) Homepage Journal
    Plastic skin...
    No big win.
    A chiseled chin,
    Flashy as Flynn:
    Burma Shave

        • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward
          IANAL, but I don't think they could get a trademark on such a confusing name.

  • I for one welcome our plastic skin overlords (Score:4, Funny)

    by 2.7182 (819680) on Tuesday June 12 2007, @07:00AM (#19476097)
    HAIL Joan Rivers!
  • ... to living forever!

    Honestly though, as cool as it sounds, I can't help but wonder what adverse side effects there might be for some individuals.

  • Burn victims (Score:5, Funny)

    by Atheose (932144) on Tuesday June 12 2007, @07:04AM (#19476119)
    Imagine how this could be applied to burn victims.

    Or, on a more humerous note, Michael Jackson. Though I suppose there's no cure for wierdness.

    • Re:Burn victims (Score:4, Insightful)

      by john83 (923470) on Tuesday June 12 2007, @07:10AM (#19476161) Homepage

      Imagine how this could be applied to burn victims.
      I don't think it's there yet. I'm not sure anything that uses solid epoxy resins as healing agents is likely to get FDA (or whatever the appropriate body is!) approval for use in people. In industry though... it could be very cool to have an aeroplane that could deal with a crack in the hull, or a spacecraft which could fill micrometeorite holes.
    • Oop, got your nose!

      ...

      Holy shit it's growing back!

    • Imagine how this could be applied to burn victims.

      Or, on a more humerous note, Michael Jackson. Though I suppose there's no cure for wierdness.

      I immediately thought the same thing.... burn victims, not the creepy pop identity. I got severely burnt, >90%. They used artificial skin on most of my body as there was only ~10% to graft from, it had to be replaced with my own skin once the donor sites had regenerated which took 2 weeks surprisingly. I had 2 donor sites so 1-2 operations a week for months. This sounds like it could have saved me about 30 operations and I would be invincible now. I kind of already am, the way they work out percentage c

      • Imagine how this could be applied to burn victims.

        Or, on a more humerous note, Michael Jackson. Though I suppose there's no cure for wierdness.

        I immediately thought the same thing.... burn victims, not the creepy pop identity. I got severely burnt, >90%. They used artificial skin on most of my body as there was only ~10% to graft from, it had to be replaced with my own skin once the donor sites had regenerated which took 2 weeks surprisingly. I had 2 donor sites so 1-2 operations a week for months. This sounds like it could have saved me about 30 operations and I would be invincible now. I kind of already am, the way they work out percentage chance of survival came up negative for me....that was 9 years ago. I want plastic skin, I could join the X-Men, no I'm not an ex-man, that was part of the 10% thankfully.

        Damn it's not biological skin I hear....I was designing my costume.

      • Yeah, this new skin would be great for someone in a situation like yours. Imagine being able to use this rather than taking skin off your ass or from other donors.

      • the way they work out percentage chance of survival came up negative for me
        Well, if they didn't give a time limit on it, they might as well say zero.
        • His original post said it was 9 years ago. From the Wikipedia article, "David" came out in 1988, 19 years ago. If the movie really is based on a true story, the actual event would have happened some time before that. So I don't think DavidV is "David".

  • Interesting concept (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LordBafford (1087463) on Tuesday June 12 2007, @07:07AM (#19476145) Homepage
    This is a very good break through. With a material like this if it can be mass produced and make correctly we could see this in homes and cars as possible replacements for windows. Saying that if something broke a window it would just fix itself automatically. I assume the military will fine plenty of uses for this too. I noted that the main use they were talking about is related to space, which is great and could potentially saw millions on our various orbiters and probes where as if they are hit by debris in space they can repair themselves and save countless man hours and material in planning a mission to fix them.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by theaceoffire (1053556)
      This wouldn't work for windows unless you cracked them... If you have a crack, the veins would ooze out of em, sealing them. If you have a hole, the veins would just ooze... If it seals fast enough, it MIGHT be able to create some sort of covering, but that covering would have no veins inside it, meaning it can't repair itself again in the future, meaning that the window has to be replaced anyway. Nah, the real places you are going to see this being used, is in wires, tubes, and other items that don't ha
    • I can think of a thousand uses around the house. Cutting boards in the kitchen (or maybe even kitchen countertops!), a workplace mat for the garage. You could make garbage cans out of the stuff (think of how many times the garbage collectors have destroyed your can). Durable flooring. I wonder if you could make a desk out of the stuff...

       
  • ...Resistance is futile.

  • for one... (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Z80a (971949)
    i welcome the self healing,plastic cyborgs overlords
  • Self-healing kids' toys! The world will never be the same again.
    • "Scientists noticed that whenever an airplane would crash, they'd search through the wreckage and the only thing that ever survives intact are these cute little baby dolls. So they built Starbug out of the same stuff."
  • Destroy the plastic skin before the T-1000 can come back from the future to grab it and the cybernetic arm and CPU and return to the future to ensure its existence.
  • Finally, my morning tormentor will be able to heal itself after its otherwise-fatal blow or toss.
  • has anybody told Michael Jackson?

    I mean he's just got to be beating down their doors on this one....

    ..shudders.

    lets face it, any new design of skin is probably better then what he has.

  • We can do that live action version of The Polar Express [imdb.com]

  • The Possibilities... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by astapleton (324242) on Tuesday June 12 2007, @09:01AM (#19477161) Homepage Journal
    ...are enormous.

    1) A layer of self-healing plastic inside a space suit to seal off punctures before the astronaut loses too much air.
    2) Same thing on a larger scale for boats - just make the plastic sensitive to direct contact to water.
    3) Same thing on an even larger scale for planes, especially jetliners.
    4) Same thing on the largest scale for shuttles, space stations and true spacecraft.
    5) Plastic layers inside the seams and seals of a car so that water-immersed vehicles can slow water flow into a car long enough to increase the accident victim's chances of survival without preventing them from escaping a sinking vehicle.
    6) Battlefield plastic skin bandages to protect a wound from further damage, cover and clean it, maintain pressure on the injury and encourage clotting at the wound site.

    I could go on for a while on this, these being just the accident-oriented uses...

  • Stretch Man (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Derosian (943622) on Tuesday June 12 2007, @09:34AM (#19477567) Homepage Journal
    Finally they can make a Stretch man that will be able to repair itself! Never again will we have to worry about the gooey insides coming out. Now we just need to find a way to keep the insides from hardening.

    On a more serious note, this could easily be used as a combat suit, think of it as a tight suit that repairs itself. If you get stabbed the suit first protects you from the blade and covers up the wound protecting you from blood loss, I can think up hundreds of practical applications for this outside of the realm of combat too. Pressure sensitive equipment can self-repair, as well as if this material is a good insulator then it might be applicable to wiring.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Finally they can make a Stretch man that will be able to repair itself!
      Is this one of the few occasions it might be on-topic to mention goatse?

    • Never again will we have to worry about the gooey insides coming out.
      I thought that was the whole purpose of Stretch. I mean honestly, what could you do with Stretch? Stretch him. How long would that remain entertaining? Less than an hour. What do you do after that? If you were anything like me and my friends, you took a knife to him to see what was inside.
  • This is a neat technology with uses other than skin. One thing which comes to mind is the issue of punctures in the space station, or even rocket ships, due to collisions with all of the junk that is currently in orbit. Or space suits.

    If they could only get this to work in the low temperature of space, I think they'd have an instant contract with NASA.

    IIRC, a science fiction writer once wrote about something similar. Asimov, I think. But the "healing" happened from a gel contained on the inside of the s

  • Couple it with the fake blood, couple of variable-speed servos and you can have your very own android.

  • Link to the researchers' site (Score:3, Informative)

    by ajdecon (233641) <ajdecon@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Tuesday June 12 2007, @11:03AM (#19478623)
    ...with more information, pictures, and a little video. Oh! And a link to a PDF of the actual article.

    http://www.mvac.uiuc.edu/network.html [uiuc.edu]
  • If they ever make this plastic regenerate its shape as well as structural integrity (*snicker*), I'll want to use one to coat my car with it. All those little dings and scratches - wouldn't it be wonderful if your car could heal itself and always look brand new? :)

    • Re:Body-shop (Score:5, Funny)

      by Red Flayer (890720) on Tuesday June 12 2007, @07:13AM (#19476183) Journal

      I thought auto-repair was limited to C&C Generals :-)
      I don't know where you live, but there are three auto-repair shops within a couple miles of my house. One of them even specializes in fancy imports.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by surfer.jam (1110627)
      Medicine was not the first "healing agent." Our own body has agents, for instance, as the article stated, the capillaries in our blood, that heal our skin. The blood "oozes" out of the opening in our skin causing the capillaries to cover the injury and, after a long process, heal our skin. The "self-healing plastic 'skin'" is not a replacement for ours, but a material that attempts to imitate the processes our body uses to heal our skin.

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