A Beckman Institute research group has successfully demonstrated self-healing polymers for a critical small scale application: restoring lost conductivity in electronics. The system builds upon recent work in the group on a single capsule method for restoring conductivity, but with the added feature of being non-conductive until damage occurs and the conductivity agents are needed.
Twin microcapsule shells rupture in response to damage, and materials are released as a liquid from the core, forming a solid charge-transfer salt that restores conductivity to the electronic device.
“We’ve been able to encapsulate this conductive salt on its own but we wanted to show that we could encapsulate something that was non-conductive,” says Susan Odom. “We only want it to be conductive when it’s actually being used in repair.”
The group has been a leader in developing self-healing materials that can restore functionality or extend the lifetime of structures by self-repairing cracks or damage, for example, in structural materials and in the coatings of bridges or automobiles.
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Self-Healing Electronics
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