Auckland University students develop living plastic that can self-repair

The new type of resin is 3D printed.

In a world first, a group of Auckland University students have created a type of living plastic that can self-repair.

Honours students Chris Bainbridge and Kyle Engel, with the help of Bryony Daley developed the plastic, otherwise known as resin.

Resin is a gooey substance before it is cured, becoming a hard plastic. Traditional resin, once cured can't be changed. Mr Bainbridge and Mr Engel have come up with a resin with special component, that when it is exposed to light or heat, can grow in size and mass.

The students had been working on the project, which they dubbed "THING" after the 1982 sci-fi movie, for several months before they saw their first results.

"That was the eureka moment. I told the partner I was working with that I wanted to hug him.. He said please don't," Mr Engel told 1 NEWS.

It's been developed through 3D printing and works by producing the programmed object into layers, like a sandwich.

As well as being 100 per cent recyclable, the researchers also discovered their resin could self-repair.

"We ground it up, chopped it up into fine particles, put it into the bottom of a vile, put a bit of pressure on to top so it was all sort of squished together though it was still seperate pieces, and after shining a light on it for a few hours, it reformed back into a single piece," Mr Bainbridge said.

While the breakthrough technology has the potential to produce major bio-medical applications, Mr Bainbridge and Mr Engel are starting their thinking small.

"The simplest example of it's ability to grow could be likened to a shoe in-sole. In theory grow that in this growth medium and it will expand in size as your shoes do," Mr Bainbridge said.

The team's professor, Jianyong Jin was blown away with his student's findings.

'Considering these student's aren't even PHD students is pretty incredible, I am very proud of them," he said.

Mr Bainbridge and Mr Engel have published their findings to the world, but will continue to work on developing it.

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