Nanoscale silver (and platinum) exhibits intrinsic self-healing abilities without external intervention

[searcher]

Nanoscale silver exhibits intrinsic self-healing abilities without external intervention​

As an innovative concept in materials science and engineering, the inspiration for self-healing materials comes from living organisms that have the innate ability to self-heal. Along this line, the search for self-healing materials has been generally focused on "soft" materials like polymers and hydrogels. For solid-state metals, one may intuitively imagine that any form of self-healing will be much more difficult to achieve.

While a few past studies have showcased the self-healing behavior in metals that more or less requires the assistance of external triggers (e.g., by heating, mechanical stimulus, or electron beam irradiation), whether the autonomous self-healing can occur in metal solids without any external intervention remains a scientific curiosity.

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Nanoscale silver exhibits intrinsic self-healing abilities without external intervention

As an innovative concept in materials science and engineering, the inspiration for self-healing materials comes from living organisms that have the innate ability to self-heal. Along this line, the search for self-healing materials has been generally focused on "soft" materials like polymers and...

phys.org

 

[pmbug]

Very cool. I'll dig into this later.

 

[pmbug]

Similar report for platinum apparently observed as it happened:

...
In a study published last year, a team from Sandia National Laboratories and Texas A&M University was testing the resilience of the metal, using a specialized transmission electron microscope technique to pull the ends of the metal 200 times every second.

They then observed the self-healing at ultra-small scales in a 40-nanometer-thick piece of platinum suspended in a vacuum.

Cracks caused by the kind of strain described above are known as fatigue damage: repeated stress and motion that causes microscopic breaks, eventually causing machines or structures to break.

Amazingly, after about 40 minutes of observation, the crack in the platinum started to fuse back together and mend itself before starting again in a different direction.
...
While the observation is unprecedented, it's not wholly unexpected. In 2013, Texas A&M University materials scientist Michael Demkowicz worked on a study predicting that this kind of nanocrack healing could happen, driven by the tiny crystalline grains inside metals essentially shifting their boundaries in response to stress.

Demkowicz also worked on this study, using updated computer models to show that his decade-old theories about metal's self-healing behavior at the nanoscale matched what was happening here.

That the automatic mending process happened at room temperature is another promising aspect of the research. Metal usually requires lots of heat to shift its form, but the experiment was carried out in a vacuum; it remains to be seen whether the same process will happen in conventional metals in a typical environment.
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More:

Cracked Piece of Metal Self-Healed in Experiment That Stunned Scientists

File this under 'That's not supposed to happen!'.

www.sciencealert.com

 

[rblong2us]

Many moons ago we were shown how to accurately measure machine worked components using mechanical micrometers.
As part of the lecture we were shown a box of slip gauges that were used to check / calibrate the micrometer.
These gauges had to be carefully handled using cotton gloves and in a temp controlled environment.
They were incredibly accurately machined and polished .
The fascinating thing about them was that they could be joined together by contact.
The lecturer called it ‘wringing’ and it was a way of checking the flatness of the gauges .
If the surfaces are smooth enough, the atoms are able to entangle as though they are all one piece of metal.
The finer the finish the better they will stick. Think it’s called the Casimir effect .
So perhaps not a new discovery…..

 

[Someone_else]

I wonder if palladium has the same kind of property, and whether that may have affected attempts to recreate cold fusion.

 

[nickndfl]

I want one of those robots from T2 that can change into anything and send it to work in place.of me on Monday.