Scientists Observe Self-Healing Metal In Texas Lab

A microscopic crack began to form in a tiny piece of platinum subjected to repetitive stretching.

Prior to this discovery, the concept of self-healing metal might have seemed like something out of science fiction. I Photo: Sandia National Laboratories

The experiment, originally designed to study fatigue crack growth, proceeded as expected for a while. However, something unexpected occurred.

The crack ceased its expansion and, remarkably, started to shorten, effectively "healing" itself. This remarkable observation was made by a team from Texas A&M University and was reported by SciTechDaily.

This breakthrough discovery was made by a group of researchers at Sandia National Laboratories while conducting fracture experiments on nanocrystalline metals. The findings have been recently published in the journal Nature.

Prior to this discovery, the concept of self-healing metal might have seemed like something out of science fiction. Dr. Michael Demkowicz, a professor in Texas A&M University's materials science and engineering department and co-author of the recent study, did not hold such assumptions.

Ten years ago, while working as an assistant professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's materials science and engineering department, Demkowicz and his student predicted the possibility of self-healing in metals.

"We didn't set out to find healing. My student, Guoxiang Xu, was conducting simulations on fracture," Demkowicz explained.

"We accidentally observed spontaneous healing in one of his simulations and decided to investigate further." Just like the results in 2013, the findings of this recent study were surprising.

Demkowicz mentioned that he, his student, and colleagues were all somewhat skeptical of the original theory. However, his simulation models have undergone many replications and expansions by other researchers over the intervening years.

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