Self-healing Polymers: Characteristics and Applications

The replacement of construction materials such as pipelines, coatings, and seals and biomedical materials such as wound dressings and dental fillings is costly and time consuming. Oftentimes, such inconvenience could be avoided if the lifespan of the materials can be prolonged. Self-healing polymers are promising alternatives and solutions to these materials in some of the important fields including construction, commercial product, biomedical materials, and aerospace materials.^{1 2}Currently, mechanisms of self-healing capabilities of polymers involving intrinsic and extrinsic healing are being explored to suit those applications. In this presentation, some of the current mechanisms of self-healing polymers will be discussed, with emphasis on microcapsule systems and adaptive covalent networks as well as the potential application in biomedical fields and construction materials.^{3, 4}

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3. Ravandi, R.;  Heris, S. Z.; Hemmati, S.; Davaran, S., Development of a novel self-healing dental nanocomposite containing PUF nanocapsules and nanoclay. Materials Today Chemistry 2023,27, 101302.
4. Li, B.;  Sun, G.;  Sun, D.; Lu, T.;  Ma, J.; Deng, Y., Survival and activation behavior of microcapsules in self-healing asphalt mixture. Construction and Building Materials 2020, 260, 119719.