A new concrete material can heal itself when it cracks. No human intervention is necessary—just water and carbon dioxide. Developed by Victor Li, the E. Benjamin Wylie Collegiate Professor of Civil Engineering, self-healing concrete is the next generation of bendable concrete, which Li and his colleagues have been developing for 15 years. Self-healing bendable concrete remains intact and safe to use at tensile strains up to 5 percent. Traditional concrete fractures and can’t hold weight at .01 percent tensile strain.

Self-healing is possible in this new material because it is designed to bend and crack in narrow hairlines rather than break and split in wide gaps, as traditional concrete behaves. It could lead to safer, more durable infrastructure.