Chitin is the technical term for the outer shell on shell fish and insects. It is biological polymer, which makes it attractive as an additive in foods, pharmaceutical compounds, adhesives, etc.
I came across it in a paper, where it was used as a spray drying additive. Not knowing what it was off the top of my head, I went to Google.
It presented the above article, but farther down the line I came across an article that had the title "Self Healing Plastic" or some such. My curiosity was piqued. It led me to an review of a paper called Self-Repairing Oxetane-Substituted Chitosan Polyurethane Networks. Briefly, the paper deals with chitin-plastic mixtures. When the mixtures were scratched, they would close over because the chitin reacted to form cross links at the edges of the scratch. All that was required was UV light. Imagine, a car is scratched,the blemish could be closed over by by taking it for a drive in the sun!
The future is now :)
I came across it in a paper, where it was used as a spray drying additive. Not knowing what it was off the top of my head, I went to Google.
It presented the above article, but farther down the line I came across an article that had the title "Self Healing Plastic" or some such. My curiosity was piqued. It led me to an review of a paper called Self-Repairing Oxetane-Substituted Chitosan Polyurethane Networks. Briefly, the paper deals with chitin-plastic mixtures. When the mixtures were scratched, they would close over because the chitin reacted to form cross links at the edges of the scratch. All that was required was UV light. Imagine, a car is scratched,the blemish could be closed over by by taking it for a drive in the sun!
The future is now :)
Bizarrely I have also seen this paper.
ReplyDeleteThough, unlike you I didn't actually read it.
Got the impression it wouldn't be much good to repair pain jobs though as it would scar(?) like regular biological material.
Yeah, scarring would be expected. I suppose if there is enough colouring in the solid solution it would not be that significant.
ReplyDeleteI imagine the advantage of the healing scratch would be it minimises the likelihood of the corrosion of the metal underneath.