Car, heal thyself - Crab chemical could give cars a self-healing 'shell'

NewScientist - March 12, 2009, by Kurt Kleiner




Video: A material that heals its own scratches could make perfect paint

You might never have to fear for your car's paintwork again if a new kind of polyurethane that is able to heal its own surface scratches makes it to market.

Small scratches to the surface of the material close up in only a few minutes when the material is exposed to the ultraviolet light in sunlight. This life-like healing occurs because the damaged polymer molecules around the edges of a scratch use the energy from the UV to form new cross-links and recreate the network that makes up the material.

The material could make a good top coat for an automobile, says Marek Urban, a polymer scientist at the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, who led the study.

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