Also: autonomic healing, vascular self-healing, supramolecular rubber
Self-healing materials repair cracks on their own, inspired by how living tissue heals.
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White and colleagues embedded healing-agent capsules that burst and repair cracks in plastic.
Built / tested: self-healing composite
As reported in: White, Sottos, Geubelle et al. (2001). Autonomic healing of polymer composites. Nature. doi:10.1038/35057232
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Toohey and colleagues used a skin-like network of channels to heal a coating repeatedly.
As reported in: Toohey, Sottos, Lewis et al. (2007). Self-healing materials with microvascular networks. Nature Materials. doi:10.1038/nmat1934
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Cordier and colleagues made a rubber that heals when broken pieces are pressed together.
Built / tested: self-healing rubber
As reported in: Cordier, Tournilhac, Soulié-Ziakovic et al. (2008). Self-healing and thermoreversible rubber from supramolecular assembly. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature06669
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