A recent study published in the journal Advanced Materials made a gel-like polymer that can incorporate carbon dioxide from the air, to grow, strengthen and even repair itself.

The new material might be made into panels of a lightweight matrix that could be shipped to a construction site, where they would harden and solidify just from exposure to air and sunlight, thereby saving on the energy and cost of transportation.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California at Riverside developed the material that might someday be used as construction or repair material or for protective coatings.

"Imagine a synthetic material that could grow like trees, taking the carbon from the carbon dioxide and incorporating it into the material's backbone," said the paper's co-author Michael Strano at the MIT.

The researchers used a gel matrix composed of a polymer, an enzyme called glucose oxidase, and the chloroplasts.

The chloroplasts obtained from spinach leaves are the light-harnessing components within plant cells, which could catalyze the reaction of carbon dioxide to glucose.

Therefore, the material becomes stronger as it incorporates the carbon. However in the current stage, it is not yet strong enough to be used as a building material, but could function as a crack filling or coating material.

The team has demonstrated methods to produce materials of this type by the ton, and is now focusing on optimizing the material's properties. So, the commercial applications such as self-healing coatings and crack filling are realizable in the near term, according to the researchers.

[Top image: Diagrams illustrate the self-healing properties of the new material. At top, a crack is created in the material, which is composed of a hydrogel (dark green) with plant-derived chloroplasts (light green) embedded in it. At bottom, in the presence of light, the material reacts with carbon dioxide in the air to expand and fill the gap, repairing the damage. /Photo courtesy of the MIT]