It sounds incredible to have “self-healing” mobile devices that can repair themselves after daily wear and tear, just like human skin! Researchers at the University of California Riverside are using a new regenerative material which is made up of a stretchable polymer and an ionic salt and hoping to realise such amazing technology.

This material can be stretched up to 50 times its size, making it capable of conducting electricity and self-healing beyond its daily wear and tear. It can stitch itself back together within 24 hours of being torn apart, with its charged ions and polar molecules attracting and aligning to complete the repair.

The aim of self-healing material is to extend the life of that material whilst reducing the cost of the material and installation to replace broken items, and the usual requirements for device diagnosis and manual intervention. Currently, applying self-healing material could identify and remedy scratches, and extend the life of spacecraft. The research of self-healing material is still in progress. Chao Wang, the leader of the research team, said, “In the coming three years, more self-healing products will be introduced that will change our daily lives, while mobile phones will get this advanced function.” The material will first be applied to screens on mobile phones and then in the production of their batteries before 2020.

With the invention of self-healing material, we will have more durable electronic devices, and even automobiles and spacecraft, in the foreseeable future. For instance, this sort of self-healing material could also be applied to spacecraft. As any slight scratch on the surface would not be easy to detect, it could break the craft if the scratch enlarged.