When it comes to 3D printing, the sky is the limit. As 3D printing technology continues to advance, applications can be as far reaching as airplane and automobile parts to medical devices and even anatomically correct, biocompatible models. Although 3D printing technology is developing at a rapid pace, the technology itself is not new. It emerged in the 1980s as a means of creating rapid prototypes. In recent years the applications for 3D printed models have evolved with the available hardware, software, and printable materials. Evolving technology, paired with the creative and innovative minds of scientists, engineers, and physicians, has been the launching pad for developments within 3D printing technology specific to healthcare. One way 3D printing technology is poised to create better patient outcomes is in creating an anatomically and patient-specific models to aid in surgery and medical procedures. With the capability to 3D ...
Nothing drives our curiosity like half-revealed secrets!
Recently LG announced its new smartphone, G-Flex, which is curved, flexible (one can literally sit on it), and has a self-healing polymer coating on the back: Light scratches disappear before your eyes. While an observant customer can connect the flexible smartphone screen to the flexible OLED on LG’s website, the nature of proprietary self-healing coating remains a mystery.
Lauren Davidson at Quartz hypothesized about the possible mechanisms based on recent polymer self-healing achievements:
- hydrophobic self-replenishing surfaces using caprolactone polymer networks with spontaneous reorientation of surface fluoroalkyl groups
- self-healing bioplastics, designed after the Brazilian rubber tree, that have adhesive-loaded microcapsules mixed in synthetic caoutchouc
- spontaneous self-healing polymer using re-forming disulphide bonds
- self-healing synthetic skin using re-forming hydrogen bonds in touch-sensitive, (i.e., conductive) nickel microparticle-containing polymer
One should also not forget a polyrotaxane-based self-healing coating developed by Nissan and used on cars since 2005 and on iPhone cases since 2012.
Interestingly, the concept of self-healing is not limited to polymers. Self-healing electronics can be designed using the “classic” self-healing approach, with microcapsules rupturing upon injury and delivering a mending agent, which in the case of electronics is liquid metal. And finally, there is spontaneous crack-healing in metals discovered at MIT last month, which is related to an interesting phenomenon of disclination (previously “dis-inclination”), originally described for liquid crystals. Disclination is a line defect or, more precisely, a boundary between areas with different symmetries, like crystal grain areas; these defects can appear and disappear (i.e., heal) in both living and non-living systems (see video).
The World Economic Forum named self-healing materials (along with 3D printing, organic electronics and photovoltaics) among the top 10 emerging technologies for 2013 “that can help to deliver sustainable growth in decades to come as global population and material demands on the environment continue to grow rapidly.”
This is how the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies describes self-healing materials:
One of the defining characteristics of living organisms is their inherent ability to repair physical damage. A growing trend in biomimicry is the creation of non-living structural materials that also have the capacity to heal themselves when cut, torn, or cracked. Self-healing materials which can repair damage without external human intervention could give manufactured goods longer lifetimes and reduce the demand for raw materials, as well as improving the inherent safety of materials used in construction or to form the bodies of aircraft.
It’s exciting to see that the self-healing phenomena is becoming a trend in material science.
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