Flubber was pretty good stuff. The super-rubber of a 1961 Disney film starring Fred MacMurray (and of a 1997 remake starring Robin Williams) could literally make people jump through basketball hoops.
But could Flubber heal itself?
A new type of rubber developed by researchers in Paris can. When a rubberband made from the material is cut and the two ends are pressed together, they quickly form a strong new bond without glue or heat.
Ludwik Leibler, Philippe Cordier and colleagues at the Higher School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry, part of the National Center for Scientific Research, describe the new material in the journal Nature. It is made from readily available ingredients — vegetable oils and urea — and can be repaired and reprocessed many times without losing its elasticity.
Dr. Leibler said conventional rubber consists of huge molecules with strong covalent bonds holding them together. Their idea was to use smaller molecules and link them using hydrogen bonds. “Imagine that the interactions are strong enough so the whole thing holds together,” he said.
The processes involved — studied in a field known as supramolecular chemistry — are complex. The material can easily crystallize or be too fluid. “At first we obtained things that were like chewing gum,” Dr. Leibler said. “Not quite what we wanted.”
Eventually they came up with a material comparable to conventional rubber in elasticity and in how well it recovers its original size after stretching. By tweaking the ingredients, Dr. Leibler said, it should be possible to produce a range of materials with different properties. Already a chemical company, Arkema, is working on commercializing the process.Continue reading the main story
The hydrogen bonds that hold the small molecules together are also key to the healing process. When two cut ends are brought together, molecules on each side reform bonds with those on the other. Time is of the essence: if the ends are not brought together quickly enough, the molecules will form bonds with other molecules on their own side, making a repair impossible.Continue reading the main story