Self-Healing Materials: Principles, Mechanisms, and Applications

Self-healing materials represent a remarkable evolution in materials science, transforming the ancient concept of materials repairing themselves into an engineered technology. Although Roman engineers unknowingly exploited self-healing lime mortar, the modern field emerged in 2001 with the development of microcapsule-based self-healing epoxy. Since then, research has expanded to polymers, concrete, metals, ceramics, hydrogels, coatings, and other advanced materials employing diverse chemica...