This photo provided by the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology shows researchers demonstrating the newly-developed coating material.
SEOUL, June 30 (Korea Bizwire) – The Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology said Wednesday it has developed a new self-healing coating material that repairs car surface scratches through exposure to sunlight.
The newly-developed coating material, hindered urea, is added to conventional commercial coating materials to convert their chemical properties and to make high molecular components repeat bonding and debonding processes.
The research team mixed the coating with a transparent photothermal dye that converts light energy to heat energy.
If the temperature of the coated surface increases due to the heat generated by sunlight, chemical movements actively take place, automatically repairing the scratches on the surface.
The research team verified the effect of the new technology by coating the newly-developed material on the surface of a car model about 10 centimeters long and intentionally scratching its surface.
The scratch was fully repaired in 30 minutes by daytime sunlight and within 30 seconds using a magnifying glass. If this technology is commercialized, car surface scratches could be repaired naturally while driving in the daytime.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
