Development of Artificial Skin That Detects Damage and Self-Heals

KIST Research Team

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] A coating material that changes color to indicate damage and self-heals when exposed to high temperatures has been developed. It is attracting attention as it can be applied not only to automobiles, ships, and buildings but also to the artificial skin of humanoid robots.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced on the 7th that Dr. Kim Tae-an's team at the Soft Convergence Materials Research Center developed a coating material that allows immediate diagnosis by showing color changes at damaged areas and self-heals at high temperatures.

Existing coating materials capable of damage detection or self-healing typically mix very small capsules containing functional substances. However, once these capsules break, they cannot be reused, making repeated damage detection and self-healing difficult. The KIST research team developed a material using molecules with chemical structures that can return to their original form even if chemical bonds are broken by external stimuli, enabling repeated damage diagnosis and self-healing functions.

They synthesized a polymer material incorporating stress-visualizing molecules that show color when specific chemical bonds break under external force, and molecules whose bonds can dissociate and reform with temperature changes. When force is applied to the stress-visualizing molecules, specific bonds break and change into a form that displays color. The synthesized coating material showed that damaged areas turned purple and, when heated above 100 degrees Celsius, transformed into a processable form that physically healed and became colorless. Through molecular-level computer simulations, the researchers predicted that applying mechanical force would selectively break specific chemical bonds to produce color changes, and they confirmed this functionality by synthesizing the actual coating agent.

The newly developed multifunctional coating material can be widely used across existing industrial coating applications such as automotive, marine, protective, wood, railway, packaging, and aerospace industries, significantly contributing to the reduction of industrial waste. Additionally, since it can perform skin-like functions without external energy sources, it is expected to be used as artificial skin for robots like humanoids.

Dr. Kim Tae-an stated, “This research presents a method for the material itself to simultaneously implement damage detection and self-healing technologies without external factors like capsules.” He added, “However, even though repeated self-healing is possible, the material cannot be used permanently, so we are conducting additional research to convert materials that have reached their lifespan limit into environmentally harmless substances or recyclable forms.”

The research results were published in the latest issue of the international materials science journal ‘NPG Asia Materials’ (IF: 10.761).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.