Zurich - Swiss researchers have developed an innovative composite for use in lightweight construction projects. It begins to emit light in a process of luminescence to highlight where damage has occurred under the surface. The material can help avoid disasters in vehicle, ship and aircraft construction.

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) have created an innovative lightweight material together with colleagues from the University of Fribourg. It is able to report internal deformation and therefore any potential material failures at an early stage by changing color.

Changes in colour indicate deformations
A crack that is not visible from the outside forms and propagates inside the material. At the first sign of damage, it begins to fluoresce. (Reprinted with permission from ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2021, 13, 23, 27481–27490. Copyright 2021 American Chemical Society)

As ETH Zurich explains in a press release, its Laboratory for Complex Materials has combined one of its specialties – an artificial mother-​of-pearl which is modelled on the biological example of a mussel shell – with a polymer. To this they added an indicator molecule specially synthesized for this application at the University of Fribourg. This molecule is activated by stretching forces that occur in the polymer. The stronger the impact of these forces, the more intense the fluorescence becomes.

“We used fluorescent molecules because you can measure the increase in fluorescence very well and you don’t have to rely on subjective perception”, explains Tommaso Magrini, lead author of this recently published study. Therefore, overstressed areas within the composite material that are not perceptible from the outside can now be identified even before any fractures actually start to form. In this way, for example, material failures with potentially catastrophic consequences in vehicle, ship and aircraft constructions should in future be avoided.

However, according to ETH Zurich, it still remains to be seen whether and how the material can be produced at industrial scale. Up to now, the material has only been developed to lab scale as a proof of concept.

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