Army, Texas A&M develop self-healing material

The U.S. Army and Texas A&M University researchers have developed a new material that can autonomously heal in air and underwater. The 3D-printable and stimuli-responsive polymeric material is expected to enable massive reconfigurability in future military platforms, according to Dr. Frank Gardea, an aerospace engineer and principal investigator of this work for the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory. The breakthrough opens new opportunities for morphing unmanned air vehicles and robotic platforms. As the research matures, the epoxy material is expected to have the ability for massive reconfigurability and have embedded intelligence allowing it to autonomously adapt to its environment without any external control. The researchers published their work recently in Advanced Functional Materials. Photo: U.S. Army.