Recent Trends in Biomimetic Self-Healing Materials and Their Tribological Applications

Abstract

This review will outline self-healing materials inspired by nature and the applied research into tribology inspired by them, with a focus on recent advances in biomimetics. Self-healing materials are of great importance in a society where SDGs are expected to progress, and a variety of self-healing materials and self-healing strategies have been proposed. In this context, biomimetic approaches are attracting attention as a way to address the limitations of current self-healing materials. Here, some researches are introduced on the use of layer-by-layer self-assembly to mimic the repair mechanism of the skin of cephalopods such as squid. By tuning polymer interactions, self-healing performance can be achieved in about one second. When such materials are deployed in tribology, they can again exhibit a low-friction state through self-healing after being worn. The potential for further benefits to tribology will be demonstrated by achieving self-healing low-friction surfaces through the novel incorporation of a biomimetics perspective to improve tribological performance.