Self-healing polymers prolong lubricant lifetime

UK scientists have created self-healing polymers that could extend the lifetime of oils. These polymers are suitable to add to lubricants and could maintain the physical properties of oils for longer, they claim. 

Polymers are often added to oils to alter the physical properties such as viscosity; however, mechanical stress can break them, changing the properties they were added to create. Now a team of scientists led by David Haddleton, University of Warwick, UK have designed a self-healing, star-shaped polymer for use as a viscosity modifier.  More...

http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ChemScience/Volume/2010/02/Self-healing_polymer.asp