Seyyed Mohammadreza Khalili, a professor at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology and the project director of ‘self-healing nanocomposites’ told Mehr News correspondent that a great number of students are participating in the project in an attempt to develop materials which can impede damage progression and reduce maintenance costs for composite structures.
According to Khalili, once cracks appear in constructs such as ships and aircraft, hefty costs must be spent for their maintenance; furthermore, the cracks reduce the life and resistance of the structures.
Noting that the ‘self-healing nanocomposites’ project is conducted in the country for the very first time, Khalili added “the self-healing nanocomposites can repair themselves via their inner systems without imposing any maintenance costs.”
“They function exactly like a wound on a finger which gradually heals and the scar fades away,” he said.
“The production of self-healing nanocomposites has not become industrial in other countries and are currently used in the cover of some products such as cell phones,” said Khalili, adding that his team intends to develop a self-healing construct rather than just use the nanocomposites as a cover for some products.