Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Materials chemistry

Spot-on healing

Nature volume 472, pages 299–300 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

Rubbery polymers have been made in which damage is healed by exposure to light. The healing mechanism allows localized, on-demand repair, and might help to extend the lifetimes of materials for many applications. See Letter p.334

Although ultraviolet radiation can be harmful to humans, Burnworth et al.1 report on page 334 that it can be harnessed to heal scratch damage in specially designed elastomeric polymers. The authors' optically healable materials consist of polymers that contain supramolecular metal complexes, which absorb ultraviolet light and convert it into heat, triggering the mending process. Because light can be focused precisely onto damaged spots, this approach could potentially be used to locally heal polymers bearing loads.

Your institute does not have access to this article

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Healing on demand.

References

  1. Burnworth, M. et al. Nature 472, 334–337 (2011).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Blaiszik, B. J. et al. Annu. Rev. Mater. Res. 40, 179–211 (2010).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Kim, Y. H. & Wool, R. P. Macromolecules 16, 1115–1120 (1983).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Bergman, S. D. & Wudl, F. J. Mater. Chem. 18, 41–62 (2008).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Schultz, R. K. & Myers, R. R. Macromolecules 2, 281–285 (1969).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Chen, X. et al. Science 295, 1698–1702 (2002).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Brunsveld, L., Folmer, B. J. B. & Meijer, E. W. MRS Bull. 25, 49–53 (2000).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Serpe, M. J. & Craig, S. L. Langmuir 23, 1626–1634 (2007).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Cordier, P., Tournilhac, F., Soulié-Ziakovic, C. & Leibler, L. Nature 451, 977–980 (2008).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Burattini, S. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 12051–12058 (2010).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nancy R. Sottos is in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.,

    Nancy R. Sottos

  2. Jeffrey S. Moore is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.,

    Jeffrey S. Moore

Authors
  1. Nancy R. Sottos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jeffrey S. Moore
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Nancy R. Sottos or Jeffrey S. Moore.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sottos, N., Moore, J. Spot-on healing. Nature 472, 299–300 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/472299a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/472299a

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing