How Self-Healing Materials Could Change the World

Self-healing or "smart" materials may seem as magic as the alchemy of old, but they carry the very real potential to change our roads, buildings, and means of transportation.

Dr. Erik Schlangen, a Dutch civil engineer at Delft University has successfully created a road-ready material that’s practically self-healing 'with a little bit of help from the outside'. In the video of his TED talk, Dr. Schlangen demonstrates his miracle asphalt onstage. In front of an audience of undergrads, he karate-chops a block of asphalt into two. As he begins to talk about how nice it is to drive on asphalt, he places the two pieces side-by-side in an industrial microwave. MAGIC!!

No not really, simply by mixing in strands of steel wool to asphalt's usual combination of pebbles and bitumen, Schlangen uses induction to "heal" the asphalt. The microwave heats the steel wool, which in turn melts and mixes the sticky bitumen around it. Take the heat away, and the bitumen cools, mending the asphalt as it goes.

It gets better! Obviously road repair teams wouldn't be able to lug around gigantic microwaves so Schlangen’s lab has developed a special vehicle that passes induction coils over the road. He estimates that transportation workers would need to run the machine every four years or so to repair small damages and prevent potholes, thereby extending the life of a given road perhaps two-fold. Dutch officials have estimated the technology (which they've funded in part) could save the country€90 million ($130.25 million AUD) annually. Now that would buy you a lot of microwaves!