“We are following the same process as mother nature - when you cut your finger, the blood will initially solidify to cover the crack until the skin tissue seals it, and that is what we are doing with our plastics,” said Amor Abdelkader, associate professor in advanced materials at Bournemouth University, who led the study.

“Most of the things in our everyday lives have plastic in them and this has the potential to extend the life of a whole range of products and reduce waste, from re-useable drink bottles to mobile phones to plastic pipes and so much more.”

The reformulated plastic was manufactured with nanosheets of a material called MXene – appearing to the naked eye as a powder – which is used industrially as a reinforcement agent for plastics.

Specially treated with a glue-like agent, the MXene sits dormant within the plastic until it is exposed to moisture in the atmosphere by a breakage: it then activates, bonding the broken sections back together.

Chirag Ratwani, chief scientist of the project and PhD student at Bournemouth University, added: “Using MXene with our healing agent means that we get the benefits of stronger plastic, which is harder to break, but if it does break, it will fix itself. The process takes just a few minutes, and we managed to restore the plastic to 96% of its original strength.”

The process would theoretically be suitable for a wide variety of plastic polymer types, Abdelkader told Printweek, with the team now searching for commercial partners to help move the concept from the laboratory to the store.

The process would not be suitable for food-safe packaging, but Abdelkader’s team has done prior research into biopolymers that would be suitable for contact with food.