Materials

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Wolverine Superhero-Inspired Material Self-Heals and Can Power Artificial Muscles

Inspired by the comic book character Wolverine's ability to self-heal, a team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside have developed a transparent, self-healing, highly stretchable material that can be electrically activated to power artificial muscles and could be used to improve batteries, electronic devices, and robots. The new material represents the first time scientists have created an ionic conductor - meaning materials that ions can flow through - that is transparent, mechanically stretchable, and self-healing. The material could give robots the ability to self-heal after mechanical failure; extend the lifetime of lithium ion batteries used in electronics and electric cars; and improve biosensors used in the medical field and environmental monitoring.