Self Healing Hydrogels

Resource: http://www.macroevolution.net/self-healing-hydrogels.html Summary: Researchers have recently made self healing hydrogels that bind really fast, that helps repeated stretching. They are made of polymer molecules that form a soft jello like matirial, similar to soft-tissue. "Self-healing is one of the most fundamental properties of living tissues that allows them to sustain repeated damage," says Varghese. "Being bioengineers, one question that repeatedly appeared before us was if one could mimic self-healing in synthetic, tissue-like materials such as hydrogels. The benefits of creating such an aqueous self-healing material would be far-reaching in medicine and engineering." Thought the hydrogels depend on the length of the side chain and that stronger bond helps for a better, faster heal, and they tend to stic together better in acid. Researchers tested this many times by adjusting the ph levels either high and low and found it all to be successful. Impact: These hydrogels can have a huge impact on certain healing processes and if people need help healing faster. Critique: This article was very interesting and i would suggest that if you want to learn more about it to click the link and read more, it is very cool to learn about.