We have all found a scratch on our cars when we have gone to take it out of the parking lot or we have even caused it ourselves. Be that as it may, it is possibly one of the moments that can drive us the most crazy since, despite not being a very serious flaw, it does damage the aesthetics.
Well, it looks like a great solution has been found and it comes from the team at the Korea Chemical Technology Research Institute who have developed a clear coating material for our cars. that repairs scratches with just 30 minutes of sunlight.
This layer is formed by a network of polymers based on acrylic polyol. The magic of all this lies in the fact that these polymers, due to their composition, can repair themselves, thus returning to their original state. With this, if we give our car a layer of this material, what is scratched is the polymer, which with time in the sun returns to its original state.
We emphasize that this layer is completely transparent, so it does not affect the color of the paint, and can be applied with existing spray methods.
To demonstrate the “self-healing” ability of the developed material, the research team coated a model car with a spray machine. When the car model was exposed to midday sunlight for about 30 minutes, the scratch completely disappeared and the surface of the coating material was restored.
If half an hour is too long, the team also showed that the process can be dramatically sped up with concentrated light. Using a magnifying glass to focus sunlight on the mark, it is repaired in less than 30 seconds.
It should be noted that self-regenerative materials already exist, but it is true that this novelty requires less energy for the repair to take place and its effects, instead of taking a week, are reduced to seconds.
Furthermore, the researchers add that the new coating it can also repair a scratch in the same place several times, unlike others that work with bursting resin capsules.