新型材料的自我修复功能：碎屏能自动愈合

A new self-repairing material has been developed by researchers in the UK and they say it’ll be ready to integrate into everything from smartphone screens to nail varnish within the next five years.

英国研究员已开发一种能自我修复的新型材料，他们声称在未来5年内，这款材料将整合入所有的东西中——从智能手机屏幕到指甲油。

Originally developed for aeroplane wings, the technology has the potential to revolutionise a range of industries with the capacity to move into tiny cracks and harden inside like the way blood forms a dry, protective scab to heal flesh wounds.

这项科技原本是为飞机机翼打造的，但如今它拥有彻底改变一系列工业的潜能：新型材料能移至细微裂纹加固内部，就如同血液会自动形成干燥、保护性的痂来痊愈皮肉伤一样。

Made from a mixture of different carbon-based chemicals, this new healing agent produces a sheet of millions of microscopic spheres. When a crack breaks these hollow microspheres apart, a liquid is released that moves into the newly formed gap. A chemical reaction then causes the polymerisation - or hardening - of this liquid, causing it to glue to the edges of the cracks and form a hard, near-invisible filler.

这种新型治愈体由不同碳基化工品混合而成，会生成一张由数百万微观球体构成的板面。当裂缝打碎了空心球体的表面，它会释放一种液体填补到新的裂缝中去。随后的化学反应生成聚合作用，将液体硬化，使之将裂缝边缘沾到一起，形成几乎看不见的坚硬填充物。

The technology has been developed by a team from England’s University of Bristol, led by chemist Duncan Wass, and was presented at a Royal Society meeting in London last month.

这项技术是由英国布里斯托尔大学化学家邓肯·沃斯带领下的一支小队研发而成，上月于英国皇家学会会议上展示。

"We took inspiration from the human body," Wass told Chris Green at The Independent.

“我们从人类身体中获得了灵感，沃斯告诉《独立报》的克里斯·格林。

"We’ve not evolved to withstand any damage - if we were like that we’d have a skin as thick as a rhinoceros - but if we do get damaged, we bleed, and it scabs and heals. We just put that same sort of function into a synthetic material: let’s have something that can heal itself."

“我们不是生来就能抵御一切伤害的——如果我们真能做到，那我们的皮肤就跟犀牛一样厚了——但如果我们真的受伤了，我们会流血，会结痂会愈合。我们只是将同样的原理应用到了合成材质中：让材料也能自我修复。