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Now, a mobile screen that fixes cracks within 20 minutes

Seoul - South Korean researchers use linseed oil to create material that can self-repair damage to screen

Smartphones come for a price, and most users are known to splurge thousands on top brands. However, no matter how careful you are with your phone, it’s a common sight to see a handset slip out of one’s hand or purse resulting in a smashed screen.

Repairing a shattered screen can be expensive, but now, after extensive experiments, South Korean researchers have made a breakthrough that can make broken screens a thing of the past.

In laboratory tests, researchers proved that when a screen is broken, transparent linseed oil can be used to any damage.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) said that the collaborative research team led by Dr Yong-Chae Jung and Hak-soo Han from Yonsei University was able to develop a self-healing colourless electronic material that can self-repair cracks or damaged functions occurred on the material.

In the material developed by the team, the microcapsules break when mechanical damage occurs, then, the linseed oil leaks out and flows to the damaged area to become hardened, thereby healing the damaged area.

Such self-healing capability has the advantage of being able to heal local damages.

Other materials with self-repairing capabilities developed so far could only be implemented with soft materials and repaired only by applying high-temperature heat to the materials.

On the other hand, the material developed through this research is capable of self-healing even though it is implemented with a hard material, and it can be self-healed at room temperature without requiring high-temperature heat.