Flourishing Self-Healing Surface Materials: Recent Progresses and Challenges

In the past few decades, the self-healing surface materials with durable mechanical, functional, and structural properties have attracted enormous research interests, which exhibit great potential in energy conversion devices, sensors, electronic skins, superhydrophobic fabrics, medical/biological hydrogel, and a protective coating. Despite the remarkable progresses achieved in the self-healing surface, the systematic and overall reviews that focus on self-healing surface materials are still lacking and in urgent need. Herein, the recent advances in the development of self-healing surface materials are summarized. The surface damage forms that composed of cracks, scratches, punctures, and surface wear, are systematically reviewed. The self-healing mechanism and methods at interface are then introduced to briefly explain the basic design principle. The recent developments of functional surfaces including superhydrophobic, oleophobic, antifogging, anti-icing, antibiofouling, and anticorrosion surfaces with self-healing functions are further discussed. Finally, the contemporary challenges, and the future perspectives that motivate are proposed to create more innovative self-healing materials for diverse fields.