Smartphones are an important part of our lives as they not only make communication possible but also keep us entertained. However, there’s one drawback– they are extremely delicate to handle. If you happen to drop your smartphone, usually you have two options– you can either get it repaired or you can replace it. But now you will have a third choice as well.
A group of scientists from the University of California, Riverside have created a self-healing material that can repair itself in 24 hours. (No, we’re not kidding!)
Scientists experimented with several materials to develop a self-healing polymeric material that can repair itself.
The key to self-repair lies in the chemical bond that exists in the material used in the material. Two types of bonds hold the matter together– covalent bonds, which are strong and cannot be reformed once broken, and the weaker iconic bonds. Instead of using the commonly existing covalent bonds, researchers turned to a different type of non-covalent bond called an ion-dipole interaction. This type of bond is formed between charged ions and polar molecules, which means that when such a material breaks or has a scratch, the molecules get attracted to each to heal the material.
The material so formed can stretch up to 50 times of its usual size and can automatically repair itself within a day once broken.
Earlier, LG G Flex 2, that was released in 2015, came with a ‘self-healing’ back. However, the material used in it could not be used to make smartphone screens. However, the material developed by scientists responds to electrical signals making it ideal to be used in smartphone screens and potentially and replacing the gorilla glass protecting that is widely used in the smartphones these days.
