Recent Advances on Self‐Healing Materials and Batteries

Abstract

healing is a concept to imitate the healing of biological damage and is considered to be an important property of nextgeneration smart materials. With a huge breakthrough of selfhealing materials in recent years, many devices with integrated self-healing ability are promising due to their intelligence and durability. Among them, self-healing batteries have attracted ever-growing interest due to their remarkable electrochemical performance and broad application prospects. In this article, the state-of-the-art progress in self-healing materials and batteries are summarized. First, this review introduces the main selfhealing mechanisms and corresponding materials. Second, various self-healing batteries including micro and macro selfhealing, are discussed, about their self-healing principles, fabrication techniques, and self-healing performances. Finally, existing challenges and future opportunities are discussed in this thriving field. Self-Healing Mechanisms and MaterialsAs one driving force of smart inventions and technologies in the 20th century, polymeric materials play an increasingly important role in the world. As far as we know, most selfhealing materials are polymer-based. To date, the self-healing mechanism is divided into two major types: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic self-healing materials heal with reversible bonds, [5,23] and extrinsic self-healing materials are through preembedded healing agents to heal the damages. [24] Herein, this part discusses four subsections according to specific healing mechanism of self-healing materials. Reversible Non-Covalent Bond Based Self-Healing MaterialsReversible non-covalent bonds including hydrogen bonding, [25] ionomers, [26] metal coordination bonding [27] etc is a main mechanism of intrinsic self-healing materials. Unlike covalent bonds, the formation of these non-covalent bonds does not [a]

Single-sulfur atom discrimination of polysulfides with a protein nanopore for improved batteries

“…Hence the ongoing activities center on alternative technologies (Na-ion, Li-air, Li-S,…) but also in the quest of means to enhance present batteries lifespan, durability and reliability. The latter calls for the development of smart batteries embedded with intelligent sensing 4 and curing chemical functionalities 5,6 .…”

“…Not surprisingly, most of the auto-repairing approaches are inspired by biological systems and benefit from the general strategies and formalisms well established for most living creatures. Following nature's strategy relying on the use of sacrificial weak bonds for self-repairing, battery scientists have developed materials based on bio-molecules or polymers, with auto-repairing properties 6 relying on dynamic supramolecular self-assembly such as hydrogen bonding, ionic bonding or host-guest interaction 5,7 .…”

The Evolution of Flexible Electronics: From Nature, Beyond Nature, and To Nature

“…[161] Compared with self-healable flexible supercapacitors, the investigation of self-healable flexible batteries, one of the most important energy storage devices, is still challenging due to more critical requirements on the conductivity of both electrolyte and electrode. [162][163][164][165] A flexible and self-healable aqueous lithium-ion battery (LIB) was created by Peng et al for the first time. [166] The electrical and mechanical properties of the LIB could be restored after breaking by designing aligned carbon nanotube sheets loaded with electrode nanoparticles on a self-healing polymer substrate (Figure 6a).…”

Exploiting Self‐Healing in Lithium Batteries: Strategies for Next‐Generation Energy Storage Devices

“…In fact, the amount of energy required for bonds formation is higher than the thermal energy available at the room temperature. [ 24 ]…”

“…Dendrites appearance, solid–electrolyte interface/interphase (SEI) and cathode electrolyte interface (CEI) breakings, release of gases, and short circuits are other relevant causes of malfunctioning. [ 24 ] Therefore, it is necessary to individuate new approaches that can deal with such issues in order to reduce the failure risk and to increase the safety and the life cycle of batteries. Consequently, the self‐healing concepts treated in this chapter are broader, including also all those strategies that may effectively counteract or retard the occurring of failure mechanisms beside the physical cracks.…”