The creation of new self-healing concept for self-healing polymer using microbial metabolism

New concept of a self-healing polymer composite has been proposed. Conventional self-healing polymer uses chemical reaction such as polymerization and reversible non-covalent bond for self-healing reaction(1)(2). In this study, application of microbial aerobic metabolism for self-healing reaction was proposed, which has been only applied into self-healing concrete(3) and is entirely different from conventional approach conducted in self-healing polymer. Self-healing polymer using microbial aerobic metabolism has advantage on utilizing external substances in the ambient environment for self-healing reaction. To apply microbial aerobic metabolism into self-healing polymer, technical issues were considered in each self-healing process. After consideration, the filamentous fungi involved in traditional Japanese food industry were selected to resolve each technical issue. The advanced self-healing polymer model using filamentous fungi were designed. This new concept of self-healing polymer will be so innovative by bridging traditional Japanese food and the material science in the cutting edge, which had never come across before.