The Versatility of Polymeric Materials as Self-Healing Agents for Various Types of Applications: A Review

The versatility of polymeric materials as healing agents to prevent any structure failure and their ability to restore their initial mechanical properties has attracted interest from many researchers. Various applications of the self-healing polymeric materials are explored in this paper. The mechanism of self-healing, which includes the extrinsic and intrinsic approaches for each of the applications, is examined. The extrinsic mechanism involves the introduction of external healing agents such as microcapsules and vascular networks into the system. Meanwhile, the intrinsic mechanism refers to the inherent reversibility of the molecular interaction of the polymer matrix, which is triggered by the external stimuli. Both self-healing mechanisms have shown a significant impact on the cracked properties of the damaged sites. This paper also presents the different types of self-healing polymeric materials applied in various applications, which include electronics, coating, aerospace, medicals, and construction fields. It is expected that this review gives a significantly broader idea of self-healing polymeric materials and their healing mechanisms in various types of applications.