In the future, we may praise the computer repairman on his needlework. After all, the self-healing power of skin has served life very well over the years; it could be just as powerful in other contexts, too. If we surrounded the most sensitive computer components with a sac of soft material, air- and water-tight, repairs could end with the technician suturing shut a scalpel hole.

Researcher Ibon Odriozola at CIDETEC Centre for Electrochemical Technologies has created a polymer that has the potential to lead to such a future. The material is comprised of a poly (urea-urethane) elastomeric matrix, a network of complex molecular interactions that will spontaneously cross-link to “heal” most any break. In this context, the word “spontaneous” means that the material needs no outside intervention to begin its healing process, no catalyst or extra reactant. In the experiments, a sample cut in half with a razor blade at room temperature healed the cut, with 97% efficiency, in just two hours.

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There is a book about self-healing materials. I had a chance to skim through it once. What amazed me then was the enormous range of materials that can be considered self-healing. There are self-healing concretes, metals and ceramics as well as polymers. Polymers are easiest. For example, concrete can self-seal cracks, can reverse rebar corrosion, and gets stronger with age as carbon dioxide slowly diffuses in.

A common factor of all self-healing materials, unfortunately, seems to be reduced strength.