4 ms·

A self-healing, transparent, highly stretchable material

68 points by manojr 10y ago

daveguy 10y ago
And very importantly -- it can contract and expand with electric current. It can be used as an artificial "muscle" and if it is cut in half it will re-attach and be usable within 5 minutes and almost fully re-connected in 24 hours.
- michaelchisari 10y ago
  Am I crazy (or naive) for immediately thinking about the robotics potential?
  - daveguy 10y ago
    Not at all crazy or naive. That is one of the applications listed in the subtitle of the article. Efficiency and longevity of the properties are going to make a big difference in that area. E.g. muscle wire -- cool but very inefficient. Also, does it maintain these properties for a long period of time or will the properties (self-healing and current response) wane after a year or so.
    - Someone 10y ago
      Another important dimension of longevity is how well it behaves in real life. What happens when it gets hot, cold, dry or wet, when it gets exposed to UV from the sun, etc?
Karliss 10y ago
I wonder how self healing properties affect maintaining original shape. Would it form a blob after being folded and compressed? Does it stretch out if it self heals while stretched?
jcoffland 10y ago
This says nothing about the durability or strength of the material. How much force can it impart when retracted?
- jayajay 10y ago
  This might help you: http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v8/n6/full/nchem.2492.html http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v8/n6/full/nchem.2492.ht... Also this: http://www.chaowanggroup.com/publications.html http://www.chaowanggroup.com/publications.html
slacka 10y ago
I've been reading about these "self-healing" materials for years. They have always been overhyped and never made it out of the lab. The only way to have truly a "self-healing" material, it to make it with nano technology that has self-organizing, swarm properties. All these other "breakthroughs” are just gimmicks with limited use potential.
- jayajay 10y ago
  > As a result, the iron–ligand bonds can readily break and re-form while the iron centres still remain attached to the ligands through the stronger interaction with the pyridyl ring, which enables reversible unfolding and refolding of the chains. "Self-organizing" and "swarm" are buzzwords in your usage. Do you consider a proton and an electron self-organizing because there exists a bound state? What do those words even mean?
  - slacka 10y ago
    Self-organizing has a very clear definition. Wikipedia has an entire article on it. I suggest you look it up. None of the many self-healing claims of the past, including this one have ever been self-organizing. As a result, have no programmable group memory. The amount of damage that can be repaired, stress fractures that can be repaired, etc is an incredible small range compared to any biological system. This is no different. As far a swarm being a meaningless buzz word, again I beg to differ. From biological to robotic swarms, very simple instructions can achieve amazingly complex results. I have a high confidence that when we actually do have a real self-healing technology, swarm will be an apt description of its nano tech.
    - jayajay 10y ago
      > Self-organizing has a very clear definition. Not true. The "definition" in Wikipedia is essentially saying that a complex system exhibits self-organization if there is order observed at various scales. I didn't read the paper -- but based on the abstract, it looks like there is some sort of structural phase transition at T_c = 253K (please correct me if this is wrong) which allows these molecules to energetically favor reassembly. This would classify, according to Wikipedia, as self-organization at a microscopic scale. Self-organization can be evident at some scales (but not others) in systems which are not self-similar, but you already know this, since you read the Wikipedia article. > From biological to robotic swarms, very simple instructions can achieve amazingly complex results. No one is denying the beauty of complex systems. That said, the versatility of the word "swarm" word is precisely what makes it trivial! One can only beg for more words. What kind of swarm? At what scale? A physicist will find behavior that can be poetically described as "swarm" in one place, and a chemist will find it in another place, and a biologist will find it in still another place, and at a different scale! > I have a high confidence that when we actually do have a real self-healing technology, swarm will be an apt description of its nano tech. This is meaningless! It's trivially true. Let me try it: "I have high confidence that when we actually do have a real self-healing technology, sinusoidal will be an apt description of its nano tech." You can't use those terms to describe what self-healing "should look like" since those terms are vague and non-mathematical (self-organization could be defined more mathematically). In reality, I think you have an idea or imagination or intuition of what you think "real" self-healing technology should be, and you just aren't satisfied with what we're at right now. This -- I can accept, and I might even agree with you. But don't go around hand-waving buzzwords about what technology should look like, because there's no content there.
HillaryBriss 10y ago
self healing properties would be a labor savor in outside-facing building materials (e.g. roof and stucco patching compounds, window sealants, elastomeric paints, wood putty) probably too expensive for such mundane uses though. maybe this stuff can extend the working lifetime of the equipment on NASA space probes
jayajay 10y ago
This link might be better for you. http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v8/n6/full/nchem.2492.html http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v8/n6/full/nchem.2492.ht... This professor's research looks pretty fucking cool http://www.chaowanggroup.com/publications.html http://www.chaowanggroup.com/publications.html. We can dream of a future where our computers' processors are biological or organic, where the distinction between life and machine dwindles.

68 points by manojr 10y ago

And very importantly -- it can contract and expand with electric current. It can be used as an artificial "muscle" and if it is cut in half it will re-attach and be usable within 5 minutes and almost fully re-connected in 24 hours.

michaelchisari 10y ago
Am I crazy (or naive) for immediately thinking about the robotics potential?
- daveguy 10y ago
  Not at all crazy or naive. That is one of the applications listed in the subtitle of the article. Efficiency and longevity of the properties are going to make a big difference in that area. E.g. muscle wire -- cool but very inefficient. Also, does it maintain these properties for a long period of time or will the properties (self-healing and current response) wane after a year or so.
  - Someone 10y ago
    Another important dimension of longevity is how well it behaves in real life. What happens when it gets hot, cold, dry or wet, when it gets exposed to UV from the sun, etc?

Karliss 10y ago

I wonder how self healing properties affect maintaining original shape. Would it form a blob after being folded and compressed? Does it stretch out if it self heals while stretched?

jcoffland 10y ago

This says nothing about the durability or strength of the material. How much force can it impart when retracted?

jayajay 10y ago
This might help you: http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v8/n6/full/nchem.2492.html http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v8/n6/full/nchem.2492.ht... Also this: http://www.chaowanggroup.com/publications.html http://www.chaowanggroup.com/publications.html

slacka 10y ago

I've been reading about these "self-healing" materials for years. They have always been overhyped and never made it out of the lab. The only way to have truly a "self-healing" material, it to make it with nano technology that has self-organizing, swarm properties. All these other "breakthroughs” are just gimmicks with limited use potential.

jayajay 10y ago
> As a result, the iron–ligand bonds can readily break and re-form while the iron centres still remain attached to the ligands through the stronger interaction with the pyridyl ring, which enables reversible unfolding and refolding of the chains. "Self-organizing" and "swarm" are buzzwords in your usage. Do you consider a proton and an electron self-organizing because there exists a bound state? What do those words even mean?
- slacka 10y ago
  Self-organizing has a very clear definition. Wikipedia has an entire article on it. I suggest you look it up. None of the many self-healing claims of the past, including this one have ever been self-organizing. As a result, have no programmable group memory. The amount of damage that can be repaired, stress fractures that can be repaired, etc is an incredible small range compared to any biological system. This is no different. As far a swarm being a meaningless buzz word, again I beg to differ. From biological to robotic swarms, very simple instructions can achieve amazingly complex results. I have a high confidence that when we actually do have a real self-healing technology, swarm will be an apt description of its nano tech.
  - jayajay 10y ago
    > Self-organizing has a very clear definition. Not true. The "definition" in Wikipedia is essentially saying that a complex system exhibits self-organization if there is order observed at various scales. I didn't read the paper -- but based on the abstract, it looks like there is some sort of structural phase transition at T_c = 253K (please correct me if this is wrong) which allows these molecules to energetically favor reassembly. This would classify, according to Wikipedia, as self-organization at a microscopic scale. Self-organization can be evident at some scales (but not others) in systems which are not self-similar, but you already know this, since you read the Wikipedia article. > From biological to robotic swarms, very simple instructions can achieve amazingly complex results. No one is denying the beauty of complex systems. That said, the versatility of the word "swarm" word is precisely what makes it trivial! One can only beg for more words. What kind of swarm? At what scale? A physicist will find behavior that can be poetically described as "swarm" in one place, and a chemist will find it in another place, and a biologist will find it in still another place, and at a different scale! > I have a high confidence that when we actually do have a real self-healing technology, swarm will be an apt description of its nano tech. This is meaningless! It's trivially true. Let me try it: "I have high confidence that when we actually do have a real self-healing technology, sinusoidal will be an apt description of its nano tech." You can't use those terms to describe what self-healing "should look like" since those terms are vague and non-mathematical (self-organization could be defined more mathematically). In reality, I think you have an idea or imagination or intuition of what you think "real" self-healing technology should be, and you just aren't satisfied with what we're at right now. This -- I can accept, and I might even agree with you. But don't go around hand-waving buzzwords about what technology should look like, because there's no content there.

HillaryBriss 10y ago

self healing properties would be a labor savor in outside-facing building materials (e.g. roof and stucco patching compounds, window sealants, elastomeric paints, wood putty) probably too expensive for such mundane uses though. maybe this stuff can extend the working lifetime of the equipment on NASA space probes

jayajay 10y ago

This link might be better for you. http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v8/n6/full/nchem.2492.html http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v8/n6/full/nchem.2492.ht... This professor's research looks pretty fucking cool http://www.chaowanggroup.com/publications.html http://www.chaowanggroup.com/publications.html. We can dream of a future where our computers' processors are biological or organic, where the distinction between life and machine dwindles.