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Scientists Develop Magnetic Ink That Can Self-Heal Gadgets When They Break (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the self-healing dept.

Scientists from the University of California discuss how they plan on fixing broken devices with magnetic ink particles. "Just like the human skin is stretchable and self-healing, we wanted to impart a self-healing ability to printed electronics," Amay Bandodkar, a member of the research team, tells The New York Times. The Verge reports: Sensors printed with this ink would magnetically attach to each other when a rip or tear occurs, automatically fixing a device at the first sign of disintegration. The published study focused on creating sensors that can be incorporated with fabrics. The result is smart clothing that can repair cuts up to three millimeters long in 50 milliseconds. In a sample video, a sensor used to light a small bulb gets snipped in half. In seconds, magnets in the sensor pull the two sides back together and slowly light the bulb again. To create the self-healing effect, the team used pulverized neodymium magnets typically found in refrigerators and hard drives and combined them into the ink. This helps the researchers avoid the traditional process of adding chemicals and heat, which could take hours to complete. Bandodkar estimates that $10 worth of ink can create "hundreds of small devices" that can help reduce waste, since you won't need to throw these wearables and gadgets out when they're broken. "Within a few seconds it's going to self-heal, and you can use it over and over again."

23 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. Self-cleaning fabric by Latent+Heat · · Score: 1

    that recovers from "accidents" would be way, way cool.

    1. Re:Self-cleaning fabric by rsmith-mac · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's been nearly 20 years, Bill. You can stop worrying about that blue dress.

  2. They could use it in their article... by rs1n · · Score: 1
    To quote the summary's quote of the supposed actual article:

    Sensors printed with this ink would magnetically attack to each other when a rip or tear occurs, automatically fixing a device at the first sign of disintegration.

    Someone get the the editors (slashdot and linked article) some of that self-healing ink so that I do not have to put up with these typos ("broken words") any more.

    1. Re:They could use it in their article... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Someone get the the editors (slashdot and linked article) some of that self-healing ink so that I do not have to put up with these typos ("broken words") any more.

      Physician, heal thyself.

    2. Re:They could use it in their article... by rs1n · · Score: 1

      Touche

  3. so "rare earth" magnets by the_Bionic_lemming · · Score: 1

    Why do they call it "rare earth" when it comes to these magnets?

    And why are we going to start using the rare earth as a fashion accessory? Is the clothing going to be recycled? Or are we going to lost it to landfills at some point in time?

    --
    _ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
    1. Re:so "rare earth" magnets by mark-t · · Score: 3, Informative

      They are called rare earth magnets because they utilize one or more rare earth elements to achieve a high powered magnetization that was not possible before the 1980's, when their application for that purpose was discovered.

      The elements are called "rare earth elements" because despite the fact that there is an awful lot of them in the earth's crust (even the rarest of them being far more common then silver, for instance), they are very dispersed throughout the crust, and not typically found in any large concentrations at any one site, which is typically necessary for any economically viable ore deposit.

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    2. Re:so "rare earth" magnets by mark-t · · Score: 1

      I have a child who is in his early 30's.... so, no.

      But you can stop hyperventilating over the fact that I made a mistake... Slashdot does not allow me to go back and edit my posts or else I would fix it there, I know that Samarium-Cobalt and Yttrium-Cobalt magnets have indeed been around since the mid 60's. However, when I was growing up, I had only ever heard of these referred to under the general term of "Cobalt magnets" (which also happened to apply to Alnico), rather than "rare earth magnets", and so did not mentally associate the term "rare earth" with them, especially in the context of magnets, even though both Samarium and Yttrium are definitely rare earth.

      But the application of Neodymium to make high energy permanent magnets was indeed discovered in the early 1980's, and I do not recall ever hearing the term "rare earth magnets" until then.

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  4. Unintended consequences by chiguy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What are the consequences of having super-strong magnetic dust all over the place? Can it get into your lungs? Into your eyes? What if a baby swallows some? Would walking next to a steel car cause perforations through the body?

    Not sure I like the idea of more nano particles flying around.

    --
    passetspike!
    1. Re:Unintended consequences by aliquis · · Score: 1

      What are the consequences of having super-strong magnetic dust all over the place? Can it get into your lungs? Into your eyes? What if a baby swallows some? Would walking next to a steel car cause perforations through the body?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... ;)

      I don't know. For the sellers to care they must risk facing the consequences if it's bad.

    2. Re:Unintended consequences by LegionX · · Score: 1

      Good points.

      Every time I hear "Self Healing" it turns into "Gey Goo" in my mind.

    3. Re:Unintended consequences by chiguy · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the science links. The reason I brought it up is because of the last major issue with neodymium magnets were the recall of Buckyballs. 1700 kids were sent to the hospital over a 5 year period (2009-2014) because of swallowing these magnets. That's about a kid a day, and the damage caused is gruesome.

      https://gizmodo.com/how-buckyb...

      " As it turns out, the powerful magnetic forces that make the balls so much fun to tinker with also make them absurdly dangerous if they end up inside your body. As gastroenterologist Bryan Vartabendian explains on his blog:

      When two are ingested they have a way of finding one another. When they catch a loop of intestine, the pressure leads to loss of blood supply, tissue rot, perforation and potentially death.

      If that sounds bad, it's really a very mild, clinical description when compared to the reality. The magnets are powerful enough that if you ingest two balls separately they're going find each other no matter what, ripping you apart like slow-moving magnetic bullets if necessary to do so."

      --
      passetspike!
    4. Re:Unintended consequences by chiguy · · Score: 1

      If you breathe highly magnetic dust into your lungs and have hundreds or thousands of particles that can be attracted to each other within 1mm, that seems well within the realm of dangerous.

      The reason I brought it up is because of the last major issue with neodymium magnets were the recall of Buckyballs. 1700 kids were sent to the hospital over a 5 year period (2009-2014) because of swallowing these magnets. That's about a kid a day, and the damage caused is gruesome.

      https://gizmodo.com/how-buckyb...

      " As it turns out, the powerful magnetic forces that make the balls so much fun to tinker with also make them absurdly dangerous if they end up inside your body. As gastroenterologist Bryan Vartabendian explains on his blog:

      When two are ingested they have a way of finding one another. When they catch a loop of intestine, the pressure leads to loss of blood supply, tissue rot, perforation and potentially death.

      If that sounds bad, it's really a very mild, clinical description when compared to the reality. The magnets are powerful enough that if you ingest two balls separately they're going find each other no matter what, ripping you apart like slow-moving magnetic bullets if necessary to do so."

      --
      passetspike!
    5. Re:Unintended consequences by cellocgw · · Score: 1

      Every time I hear "Self Healing" it turns into "Gey Goo" in my mind.

      That's gotta be some bad stuff. Now, "LGBTQ Goo" would at least be inclusive.

      --
      https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
  5. HP? by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    If HP makes the ink cartridges, they will be more expensive than what they repair.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  6. The video tells a very different story by gweilo8888 · · Score: 1

    Instead of showing a device self-healing, it shows a device which -- after some coaxing from the tester's fingertips -- moves close enough to maintain a tenuous (but still easily broken) electrical contact, but which is still very obviously damaged even with the naked eye, and which is attached to fabric which there was not even any attempt to repair.

    Without a huge amount more development, this won't result in one single iota less waste because it won't actually *fix* anything, despite the hype to the contrary. It'll perform just fractionally better than just having regular fabric with a circuit attached, given the tiny limitation on maximum tear size.

    1. Re:The video tells a very different story by erptree · · Score: 1

      Awesome video thank you for sharing

    2. Re:The video tells a very different story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If you were expecting this to repair the clothing in the video...

      It's a printed circuit, thin and flexible. They are vulnerable to cracking and tearing depending on how exposed they are. This is pointless, because I'm talking to a ten year old aren't I, and you'll get all the mod points for saying it didn't even attempt to repair the fabric. Sigh.

  7. Bullshit by darkitecture · · Score: 1

    Using the word "repair" is bullshit at best. It doesn't fix anything. The connection is still severed, it simply and ever-so-lightly reconnects because of a combination of luck and the weak magnetic attraction present. This is practically a shitty, ill-imagined magsafe connector except much, much weaker and probably dangerous. If one of my power cables gets severed, I want to know about it so I can fix it properly, re-establish integrity to the cable so that a light breeze doesn't have it dropping in and out every three seconds, and not have the actual wires exposed. I don't want to have it re-attach with only the slightest of magnetic attraction, only connected by pure luck that whatever severed the connection in the first place just so happened to leave the two ends within three millimeters of each other.

    1. Re:Bullshit by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Space nutters really believe that we will be going to Mars. They think it is a simple application of technology that will get us there.

  8. Re:Flexible conductive materials are new? by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    ""Self healing" my ass."

    Nobody said it was a silver bullet. Get your head out and heal that ass.

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
  9. Re:Flexible conductive materials are new? by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

    Too bad the wires usually break at the connector or soldering points.

    Make the wires and other conductors out of material using this newly-discovered technique that has yet to be explored so nobody knows if it's possible or not? It's not like they're hawking these things on Ebay or something?

    Will this fix a busted capacitor? What we have here is solution to a non existing problem. "Self healing" my ass.

    Maybe it will fix a broken capacitor eventually? Hell, maybe it will mean 'unbreakable' wire eventually?

    Maybe wait and see what comes after the initial proof-of-concept like a reasonable person who understands the difference between a tested, engineered, and marketable product with known properties & limitations, compared to an initial discovery/announcement and proof-of-concept model of a newly-discovered material where the complete properties, abilities, uses, and limitations are nearly total unknowns?

    I understand that's asking for a lot here on Slashdot, with a supposedly technically- and scientifically-sophisticated demographic.

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  10. Engineering, not science, and not workable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Scientists Develop Magnetic Ink That Can Self-Heal Gadgets When They Break"

    No, Slashdot. Scientists discover. Engineers create. The Verge, like the rest of today's media, uses the word "scientist" in the headline to give the impression that something is wonderful, true, and worth reading about. You followed right along. The body of the article even says it was done by an "engineering lab team".

    Let me tell you what wasn't discovered by these "scientists". They didn't discover an ink that has the same electrical conductivity and reactance as a metal wire or a silicon path. When you build a wire out of magnets, you drop the ability of it to carry radio-frequency signals. In the 1940s, that might have been okay. Today we have electronics that operate at low power in the gigahertz range. A path built from this ink ("healed" or not) is effectively an open circuit to today's UHF+ signals.

    This is a "neato" idea. Why don't we make electronics that withstand the stresses that consumers put on them, and why don't we put this kind of story before someone with an engineering background before posting it for the ad revenue? Golly, wouldn't that be nice...