Self healing coating developed for concrete

Concrete is by far one of the most widely used building materials, but it needs to be used correctly and looked after once in place. Cracks in concrete, especially in load bearing structures, usually result in expensive work to remove and replace it. And small cracks need to be dealt with quickly, otherwise they are only going to get worse and even more expensive to fix.

Scientists in Korea have come up with a solution to this problem, though. It's a coating that can be applied to concrete and reacts to a crack forming by automatically sealing it with liquid, which then dries hard in the sun. This is achieved because the coating is made up of microcapsules. Those capsules burst when a crack forms in the surface of the concrete and settles to fill it. No external influences are required.

The other good news is the coating is environmentally friendly. It's also very cheap to manufacture and catalyst-free. All of which points to it being adopted very quickly across the concrete industry and hopefully cutting down on the damage and expense caused by concrete cracks. Source: Laboratory Equipment