Parking in the Sun for 30 Minutes Could One Day Make Your Car's Scratches Disappear

A new protective coating developed by researchers at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology could be just as protective as the plastic films you apply to your phone. It can heal itself by being exposed to the sun, which can make scratches disappear in as little as half an hour.

If you don't keep your car in a garage, you're more likely to get a scratch on it than if you do. There are protective coating that help protect a vehicle's finish and minimize the risk of a scratch going deep enough to damage paint, expose the underlying metal panel, and increase the risk of rusting, but even a protective coating will show scratch marks that either need to be cleaned or repaired by a

Self-healing protective coating have been in development for a few years, but with some challenges that have been difficult to overcome, for those wanting to keep their vehicle looking as pristine as it did the day it rolled off the dealership's lot. When a physical impact is strong enough to produce a scratch, softer materials that are less prone to being damaged also exhibit less effective self-healing tendencies.

The researchers from the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology came up with a solution. A photothermal dye was introduced as well as an upgrade to a highly durable protective coating. The dye increases the surface temperature of the coating by converting the light from the sun into thermal energy. When there is increased heat, the chemical bonds of the coating react to it and rebuild the damaged structure.

They feature a custom acoustic platform for unique and powerfully balanced sound, can use either active noise cancelling or transparency to fit your needs, and have a battery life of up to eight hours on one charge.

The healing process can be accelerated using a high-intensity light source like a laser or by using a magnifying glass, but testing with a small model car treated with the coating found that leaving the vehicle with visible damage out in the bright midday sun for about 30 minutes generated enough heat.

You could leave your device on a windowsill for a while and come back to a device that looks as good if you wanted to.