The super-hero Wolverine from the popular X-Men comic series not only has remarkable strength and a number of useful skills. He can also repair damage to his body - any wounds on him quickly heal, and he himself immediately comes into good physical shape. It was this character that inspired scientists to develop a new elastic and self-healing material. According to the inventors, it is perfect for creating artificial muscles for robots.
It was very difficult to create a material with such properties, many have tried to do something similar for many years, but only we finally managed to do it. Now we have started researching our development. We are thinking how to improve the technology and apply it for the benefit of humanity, - said Chao Wan, a big fan of Wolverine and an employee of the University of California Riverside.
He explained that it was his interest in the comic book character that inspired him and spurred his interest in self-healing materials, so he, along with a team of university specialists, began researching natural and artificial materials, whose properties could be useful in their difficult business.
It was quite difficult to make the broken bonds recover, because almost all polymers "heal", while forming covalent bonds that will not last long if they are constantly exposed to electricity, - reports sciencealert.com, - therefore Chao Wang used ion-dipole reactions in order to solve the problem. In the material created by his team, new bonds in the damaged area are formed due to the interaction of ions and molecules with a strong dipole moment.
The end result is a soft rubbery material that is very easy and inexpensive to make. In addition, it can stretch up to fifty times its original length. And if you cut it with scissors, in just a day and at room temperature, it will grow back together without losing its capabilities. This elastic material is capable of conducting electricity. It is thanks to him that he can stick back together.
The creators of the material offer many options for its use. They see it as a good replacement for ordinary rubber in the muscles of robots, in addition, the developers believe that it will find application in other electronics, medicine, including prosthetics.
VYACHESLAV LARIONOV
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