The Associated Press Researchers have developed the first material that automatically repairs itself, offering a potential way of fixing the hairline cracks that develop in the space-age composites used in everything from tennis rackets to aircraft. It has just an enormous number of applications.
Composite materials consist of fibers of glass, carbon or other substances mixed with a resin.
Fiberglass is one type of composite. Some tennis rackets and golf clubs are made of graphite composites. Damage to composite materials often begins as tiny cracks. As they grow, they weaken the material until it breaks. To heal tiny cracks automatically, the Illinois researchers sprinkled capsules about the thickness of a human hair throughout an experimental fiberglass-like compound.