{"id":229737,"date":"2026-01-24T10:04:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T16:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/smart-crystals-self-repair-at-320f-could-unlock-new-space-tech"},"modified":"2026-01-24T10:04:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T16:04:06","slug":"smart-crystals-self-repair-at-320f-could-unlock-new-space-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/smart-crystals-self-repair-at-320f-could-unlock-new-space-tech","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Smart\u2019 crystals self-repair at \u2014320\u00b0F, could unlock new space tech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/smart-crystals-self-repair-at-320f-could-unlock-new-space-tech.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The team, led by NUY Abu Dhabi\u2019s Pan\u010de Naumov, developed a material they dubbed smart molecular crystals. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41563-025-02411-7\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">a paper<\/a> published in the journal <em>Nature Materials<\/em>, they outlined the observation process that allowed them to identify the material\u2019s impressive properties.<\/p>\n<p>During experiments, they observed that the material could be mechanically damaged in extreme cold and then repair itself. Importantly, it also recovered its ability to transmit light after being damaged. This is essential for low-temperature flexible optical and electronic devices.<\/p>\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/nyuad.nyu.edu\/en\/news\/latest-news\/science-and-technology\/2026\/january\/self-healing-crystalline-material.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">press statement<\/a>, the material can restore its structure even at temperatures as low as &minus;196\u00b0C (&minus;320\u00b0F), the boiling temperature of liquid nitrogen. The material also remains functional throughout a wide temperature range, going up to 150\u00b0C (302\u00b0F).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The team, led by NUY Abu Dhabi\u2019s Pan\u010de Naumov, developed a material they dubbed smart molecular crystals. In a paper published in the journal Nature Materials, they outlined the observation process that allowed them to identify the material\u2019s impressive properties. During experiments, they observed that the material could be mechanically damaged in extreme cold and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1635,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-materials","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}