Advanced Materials

Thursday 13 January 2022 - New Self-healing Materials Save Lives, Money, and the Planet. The webinar explains how this is a world of many materials including a lot of silicon polymers such as geopolymers and silicones. It involves many ionomers, hydrogels, polyurethanes, ionomers, epoxies and Diels-Alder polymers but much more besides.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unique challenges for the 3D printing industry. Traditional AM target industries have been disrupted, however, its advantages have been highlighted through its use in healthcare and ability to provide flexibility when supply chains become disrupted. This IDTechEx subscriber only article summarizes the recovery of the 3D printing industry from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The direct cost of corrosion accounts for about 2-5% of a nation's GDP. For example, steel structures and steel rod "rebar" reinforcing concrete in bridges, tunnels, dams and buildings rust bursting away the concrete as shown bottom right. Those structures often have to be replaced prematurely meaning 3-30 years instead of hundred of years.

The field of self-repairing materials is rapidly expanding, and what used to be science fiction might soon become reality, thanks to scientists who developed eco-friendly nanocrystal semiconductors capable of self-healing.

Grapheal develops wearable and disposable biosensors for continuous monitoring and on-site diagnosis.

Fortera converts carbon dioxide directly emitted from a cement plant kiln and mineralizes it into a cementitious material. In November 2021, IDTechEx technology analyst Dr Hydra Rodrigues spoke to Kas Farsad, Vice President of Corporate Development at Fortera Corporation.

The subject of self-healing polymeric hydrogels is progressing rapidly. It is primarily driven by needs in healthcare. Some heal chemical as well as mechanical damage.

Ultrathin nanomaterials, known as MXenes, are poised to make it easier to monitor a person's well-being by analyzing their perspiration. While they share a similar two-dimensional nature to graphene, MXenes are composed of nontoxic metals, such as titanium, in combination with carbon or nitrogen atoms. With naturally high conductivity and strong surface charges, MXenes are attractive candidates for biosensors that can detect small changes to chemical concentrations.

These solar cells have shown amazing humidity stability and self-healing behavior after 500 hours of operation, according to the researchers.

There is a huge opportunity for better self-healing concrete and not enough research. IDTechEx analyses what is known so far.

Researchers have incorporated phosphorene nanoribbons into new types of solar cells, dramatically improving their efficiency. Phosphorene nanoribbons are ribbon-like strands of the 2D material phosphorous, which, similar to graphene, are made of single-atom-thick layers of atoms. PNRs were first produced in 2019, and hundreds of theoretical studies have predicted how their properties could enhance all kinds of devices, including batteries, biomedical sensors, and quantum computers.

Self-healing ability is of great significance for biomaterials, to prolong their life but also to improve performance, even facilitating new opportunities particularly in biology and biomedicine.

A novel carbon-based biosensor is set to drive new innovations in brain-controlled robotics. The sensor is made of epitaxial graphene - essentially multiple layers of very thin, very strong carbon - grown directly onto a silicon-carbide-on-silicon substrate. The result is a highly scalable novel sensing technology that overcomes three major challenges of graphene-based biosensing: corrosion, durability and skin contact resistance

Mainstream applications of self-healing materials involve more that just the ability of materials to creep and fill cracks or even the self-healing mechanisms withing electrolytic capacitors and batteries. By mainstream we mean materials tailored specifically to be self-healing and used to replace regular materials such as concrete, polymers and corrosion coatings for metals.

Perovskites are the great hope for further increasing the efficiency of solar modules in the future. Until now, their short service life has been considered the biggest hurdle to their practical use, but this could soon change.

Semiconductors are moving away from rigid substrates, which are cut or formed into thin discs or wafers, to more flexible plastic material and even paper thanks to new material and fabrication discoveries. The trend toward more flexible substrates has led to fabrication of numerous devices, from light-emitting diodes to solar cells and transistors.

There are many circumstances where self-healing would be a highly desirable aspect of materials used. This premium article examines the formats and formulations of self-healing materials.

Forecasts from the IDTechEx report "3D Printing Hardware 2022-2032: Technology and Market Outlook"

The potential for self-healing materials is huge but progress is slow. This premium article outlines the roadmap to 2042.

Innovation Roadmap for the report '3D Printing Hardware 2022-2032: Technology and Market Outlook'.