Researchers from the University of California, Riverside, have developed a stretchable, transparent material which can not only heal itself, but also stretch up to 50 times its normal size - meaning it could potentially fix a phone battery if it cracks, or even prevent it from breaking in the first place.
The researchers conducted several tests on the material, including its ability to repair itself from cuts and scratches. After they tore the material in half, it automatically stitched itself back together in under 24 hours, Chao Wang, a chemist leading the self-healing material research, tells Business Insider.
The material, which can stretch to 50 times its original size, is made of a stretchable polymer and an ionic salt. It features a special type of bond called an ion-dipole interaction, which is a force between charged ions and polar molecules. This means that when the material breaks or has a scratch, the ions and molecules attract to each other to heal the material.
This is the first time scientists have created a self-healing material that can conduct electricity, making it especially useful for use for cellphone screens and batteries, Wang says.
Wang predicts that this new self-healing material will be used for phone screens and batteries by 2020.
"Self-healing materials may seem far away for real application, but I believe they will come out very soon with cellphones," he said. "Within three years, more self-healing products will go to market and change our everyday life. It will make our cellphones achieve much better performance than what they can achieve right now."
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