Bioinspired Self-Healing Organic Materials: Chemical Mechanisms and Fabrications

Design and preparation of organic materials having the ability to automatically restore their mechanical and physical properties are of great importance because of the extensive application ranging from aerospace components to microcircuitry, where the accessibility is highly limited and the reparability of materials is lower. The self-healing behavior is actually a dynamic property of material, resembling what is possessed by nature living systems. Therefore, fabrication of most self-healing materials is actually inspired by nature. This tutorial review focuses on the basic chemical mechanisms that have been successfully adopted in designing self-healing organic materials. It specially covers recent development in the design of materials with durable, easy repairable or self-healing superhydrophobic surfaces and coatings.