Feb 22 2008Self-Healing Rubber Sticks Back Together
Ludwik Leibler is a chemistry professor in Paris that has created an artificial rubber substance that can stick back together with the same strength it had prior to being cut. The unnamed material is made in an earth-friendly manner from vegetable oil and urea (the stuff in urine that makes it delicious).
Break a rubber and the chemical welds - known as covalent bonds - are also broken. The trick was to replace the covalent bonds in rubber with weaker connections known as hydrogen bonds. These are like hands on neighboring molecules that can clasp together, but let go when broken. Dr Leibler quickly realized that this meant not only that the new rubber could be recycled and remolded many times over, but that if separated by a cut or break, the chemical hands at the fresh surfaces would still be waving about ready to bind again.
Now let me tell you, covalent bonds aren't the only things severed when rubbers break. No sir. Your whole life can get split apart. You know what I'm talking about don't you? I'm talking about accidentally having kids. And don't believe that baloney "the stork brings them to your house" nonsense either, it isn't true. That's just a lie your parents told you so they wouldn't have to say the word vagina.
Self-healing rubber bounces back [bbcnews]
Thanks to Frankie, who is both wild and crazy, for the tip
Reader Comments
1. PeeLover - February 22, 2008 5:41 PM
I love how they changed this video to black and white to hide the fact that the rubber is the same color as urine that you've been saving in your bladder for like 3 days.
2. SlowMonkey - February 22, 2008 5:43 PM
Urea is also in sweat: as in when you lick your upper lip and when a bead of it gets in your eyes. Thought you would want to know that. Urine is basically the same as sweat only more concentrated.
Cool rubber substance. Is this going to be my new tires that never go flat?
3. guate6 - February 22, 2008 6:36 PM
The thing I dislike about the whole urea thing. The principles of organic chemistry came about when it was discovered that you can make organic substances out of inorganic substances (read: you can make urea).
Either way, that's awesome about this re-mending rubber stuff, I hope there's many applications it can be adapted to.
4. BILLYTHEFLID - February 22, 2008 7:38 PM
Obviously blu-tack.
5. Alex Kozdra - February 23, 2008 8:31 PM
That's just magic! they didn't film it the whole time. that's a whole new rubber band. that's magician propaganda.
6. doujino - February 24, 2008 5:18 PM
oh i know this, its called play doh
and how many years did he experiment on a product that already exists?
7. Derek - February 25, 2008 11:34 AM
I could sit and play with that for hours!
8. Nelson - February 25, 2008 11:43 AM
This isn't a big deal. Any Art student knows you can slice a rubber cememt pick up and then hold it together and it'll be good as new. Now a rubber cememt pick up doesn't have anything cool in it like Pee or sweat but cans or rubber cement do say it can cause cancer!
9. louis vuitton - September 29, 2009 4:32 AM
Obviously blu-tack.
10. penis enlargement - October 6, 2009 8:27 AM
I love the content!