The new plastic is capable of quickly healing under water, even in extreme conditions. It can be used in emergency situations at sea, as it maintains its strength and self-healing.
This material was developed by Lili Chen, Tsinghua University in China, and her coworkers. It is called Rapid Underwater Selfhealing Stiff Elastomer. Chen says that self-healing polymers at room temperature have poor underwater stability, low healing power, and a slow healing rate.
RUSSE is made up of tiny chunks of a soft polymer that's used in paints and connected by nanometre-sized cables
