Self-Healing Electronics for a Zero E-Waste Future

Tons of no-longer-needed electronics end up in landfills every year. However, scientists from University of Illinois think they have found a key to a sustainable clean future, represented by self-healing electronics.

The team strongly believes that a broken item will be able to work at its entire capacity once again, due to a series of technological improvements. Beneficial changes rely on small microcapsules of liquid metal, named gallium-indium, MNN informs.

The new material is supposed to display good conductivity and a low-temperature melting point, two features that make it indispensable for the new generation of electronics.

When something goes wrong and the circuit is damaged, the tiny microcapsules release the liquid metal that manages to restore the conductivity of the entire system in a matter of seconds.

The team members are proud of their findings and have decided to publish their discovery in an article entitled Autonomic Restoration of Electrical Conductivity, in Advanced Materials journal.

So far, experts have been forced to replace the entire damaged chip. This new approach, centered on self-healing processes, reveals that there are other paths, much more convenient and eco-friendly, to remedy the failure, based on conductivity restoration.

Moreover, scientists have put all their hopes in the potential of their new project, hoping to expand its usage to other sectors.

Such an idea, once fully tested and successfully implemented can prolong the life of our cell phones and computers, generating financial savings and keeping landfills clean.

Items that actually fix themselves could definitely play an important part in a sustainable future, helping us avoid costly repairs and unnecessary investments in new gadgets.

Tiny microcapsules seem to be the perfect doctors for the next generation of electronics, being even more efficient than people.

"In an aircraft, especially a defense-based aircraft, there are miles and miles of conductive wire.You don't often know where the break occurs. The autonomous part is nice — it knows where it broke, even if we don't," explains Nancy Sottos, one of the experts behind this green project.