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It may well be hard to believe, but its true. Self-healing car coatings are making its initial launch into the market, it will basically allow allow the scratches and marks on vehicles to heal all by itself. Whats more, these car coatings can even be used for preventing corrosion and rust on cars. It is true that many people would perceive this as nothing less than a miracle happening in a science fiction movie. Just imagine, you are driving your brand new car straight from a showroom to show it to your family members and your car incurs a minor scratch or a mark in the heavy traffic. What would happen then? Do not worry; your car coating will heal all by itself right in front of your eyes. Now, isnt that unbelievable. Scientists are working round the clock to ensure that fantasies as we perceive them are turned into reality. For this, they are developing self-healing coatings that will protect the materials from undesirable external elements. These self-healing coatings have other applications as well. They can be used as automotive paints, rubbery coatings on patio-furniture, marine varnishes and park benches. Hence, the usefulness of these coatings cannot be undermined. They can be effectively used to protect the underlying substrate from getting corroded and helps them in maintaining their original composition. How do these coatings work? To prepare these coatings, you first need to encapsulate a catalyst into minute spheres of less than 50 microns in radius. One micron is equivalent to one-millionth of a meter. Next, a healing agent has to be encapsulated into micro capsules of similar size. These micro capsules have to be then dispersed into the coating material. The final product thus achieved can be applied to any surface, by incorporating both healing agent and the catalyst, the coating can be enabled to use as a liquid coating material which can be applied for different surfaces with similar effect. When the coated surface gets a scratch, the adjoining capsules break open and spill out its contents into the damaged portion. Then, both the catalyst and the healing agent will react and repair the damaged portion in a matter of few minutes or hours depending upon the environmental conditions. No more rust To test its efficiency, two samples of steel were taken into consideration. One of these samples was coated with self-healing polymers while the other sample had no self-healing agents in its coating. As an exercise, scientists scratched through the thick coatings and into the steel of both the samples. It was done through a razor blade. These samples were then immersed in a salt solution. The results were tabulated for both the samples over a period of time. As expected, the sample with no self-healing polymers corroded within a day. The rust formation in this case was not just limited to the scratched region but also spread to other regions. Incidentally, the other sample showed no signs of corrosion even after few days! The commercial application of this technology is yet to be looked at but it is sure to hit the market with vengeance.
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