Smartphone screens made of new material will be able to "heal" cracks by themselves

Researchers have synthesized today's toughest self-healing material that can help electronic devices heal. cracked screen in less than a second.

For more than 30 years, scientists have been developing materialswhich can independently restore their structure after damage. They are now used to improve wear resistance in the construction, automotive and aerospace industries. However, the low rigidity, amorphousness and opacity of such materials are still stronglylimited the scope of their application.

Now researchers from the Indian Institutescientific education and research in Calcutta, together with colleagues from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, synthesized an organic crystalline material with a unique internal structure.

Its molecules are ordered in such a way that whenWhen the crystal breaks down, a strong gravitational force arises between the cleavage surfaces, forcing the fragments to rejoin. At the same time, the new self-healing material is 10 times harder than other existing analogues, has good optical performance and is piezoelectric.

As part of the study, the team created tinymonocrystalline rods with a length of 1-2 mm and a width of 0.1-0.2 mm. During the experiments, the samples obtained were broken using a metal needle. After the formation of cracks, the structure of the material was restored in less than a second.

According to scientists, it can be used forcreating smartphone screens that can repair themselves when dropped or bumped. However, it will take time to commercialize the technology, so you should not expect such a feature to appear in the next models of mobile phones.

</p>