Trends and Approaches on Self-healable Polymeric Materials

Abstract

Since the first report of self-healing materials using the microcapsule approach in 2000' s, numerous design principles have been reported for achieving the self-healing properties. The self-healing materials have been focused on the achievement of sustainable society. With the self-healing materials, it is expected to be reduced the resource depletion and environmental problems. Moreover, it is also possible to extend lifetime of functions of materials. The self-healing materials were prepared via mainly reversible cross-linkers. Recently, precisely designed copolymers have been reported to realize self-healing properties utilizing interaction between units on the copolymers. In this focus review, we are going to review historically important researches in the self-healing materials field and brand-new approaches.