Scientists from the United States of America have developed a special biomaterial based on yeast bacteria, which can be used to make self-healing clothing, such as protective suits for interacting with a variety of hazardous environments. A material dedicated to innovative clothing that can be repaired by itself appeared on the pages of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
The process of making self-healing clothing consists of several stages, the most important of which is the immersion of the base material in a specialized biological solution consisting of negatively charged polymers and enzymes derived from yeast and bacteria. These microorganisms accelerate the decomposition of urea into carbon dioxide and ammonia and neutralize hazardous compounds that can penetrate damaged safety suits.
Pieces of fabric, as shown by a series of tests, are indeed able to bond with each other, forming a single material. That is, the properties demonstrated by the latter resemble the abilities that are endowed with protein compounds that form, for example, squid suckers.
Now the inventors of the self-healing material intend to test their creation in the real conditions of an aggressive environment.
Kolesnikov Andrey