Self-Healing Electronic Materials for a Smart and Sustainable Future

Abstract

The survivability of living organisms relies critically on their ability to self-heal from damage in unpredictable situations and environmental variability. Such abilities are most important in external facing organs such as the mammalian skin. However, the properties of bulk elemental materials are typically unable to perform self-repair. Consequently, most conventional smart electronic devices today are not designed to repair themselves when damaged. Thus, inspired by the remarkable capability of self-healing in natural systems, smart self-healing materials are being intensively researched to mimic natural systems to have the ability to partially or completely self-repair damages inflicted on them. This exciting area of research could potentially power a sustainable and smart future.

Coordination Bonds and Diels–Alder Bonds Dual Crosslinked Polymer Networks of Self‐healing Polyurethane

“…In recent years, the rapid development of self‐healing materials benefited from the unique ability that they can restore the original properties and functionalities after damage, to improve their durability, safety, and longevity . Hence, the self‐healing materials have been developed for applications in various fields including structural materials, coating, soft robotics and artificial skin, and medicine engineering . As is well known, many people used the dynamic covalent and noncovalent bonds to design the self‐healing materials .…”

Bioinspired Prosthetic Interfaces

“…However, to fully reconstruct the skin sensations, more functions need to be considered, such as the ability to self‐heal and biodegrade. A detailed review with self‐healing mechanisms and self‐healable devices was shown by Tan et al, which summarized the efforts toward self‐healable conductors, pressure sensors and transistors . More recently, devices with superior self‐healing properties under extreme conditions were reported.…”

Autonomous Supramolecular Interface Self‐Healing Monitored by Restoration of UV/Vis Absorption Spectra of Self‐Assembled Thiazole Layers

“…Impressive progress has been achieved in self-healing mechanical properties of polymers, as for example, reviewed by Yang et al [1] and Ahnere tal. [2] Recently,a lso self-healing concepts to restoree lectronic [3] or optical [4] properties of polymeric bulk materials have been introduced that enablee xtending the lifetime of organic optoelectronic devices. However, the lattere ssentially dependso nt he integrity of the carefully designedi nterfaces between the functional materials, [5] which need to self-heal as well to achieve prolongedl ifetimes of any optoelectronica nd electronic device.…”