Surprising Nature of Blood Clots Inspires New Self-healing Materials

Jan-11-13 Taking inspiration from blood clots, a team from MIT is developing a new technique for the creation of self-healing materials.

The team discovered the counter-intuitive fact that the faster blood flows, the faster a clot forms. This is due to a combination of chemistry, mechanical force and the flow itself, as well as a biopolymer long-chain molecule called Willebrand factor (vWF). The vWF molecule usually floats in the blood stream as a coil, but as blood flow increases during an injury it begins to stretch out to entangle platelets as they flow by. The faster the flow, the more platelets it collects, forming the clot.

The team believes that by imitating the blood clot mechanism they could begin to develop different aggregates that respond based on flow conditions. Applications could include inks, coatings and self-healing tires—any process that has a flow.

More Info about this Invention:

[GIZMAG.COM]
[MIT]

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