The Home that Heals Itself

by Roberta Murphy

 

Nano technology to repair homes damaged by an earthquake? A home that heals itself?

It boggles the mind, but Knauf, a German building manufacturer, is working with several universities on that very technology.  They are building a luxury tech villa in the mountains of Greece with special walls containing nano polymer particles that liquefy when under pressure. This liquid then flows into the building cracks, where it hardens into solid material.

(For those of us who struggle with the concept of nanotechnology, consider all the useful products that might be made using the tiniest particles currently imaginable— something smaller than one-hundred thousandth the width of a human hair. Think very, very small….)

The walls of this prototype villa will be constructed with load bearing steel beams and ultra-tough gypsum board, which has been infused with the nanoparticle fluid. Additionally, the walls will contain sensoring equipment to measure building movement activity .

This project, which involves researchers at a number of universities, is slated to be completed by December, 2010–-and commercial viability may not be far behind. At that point, a very small percentage of the nanoparticle polymers might be added to gypsum mix for building purposes and the product could be manufactured in large quantities.

The result would be walls that could sustain cracks and fissures during an earthquake, but which would fill and harden immediately after.

Perhaps we’ll see this marketed as “crack-and-fill” construction?

My prediction? We’ll see this nano material used first in commercial and luxury home construction. And perhaps we’ll see it in the manufacture of glass? No more cracked windshields!

Source: Science Daily