Durão, M.L.; Nobre, L.; Mota, C.; Bessa, J.; Cunha, F.; Fangueiro, R. Self-Healing Composites: A Path to Redefining Material Resilience—A Comprehensive Recent Review. Materials2024, 17, 4681.
Durão, M.L.; Nobre, L.; Mota, C.; Bessa, J.; Cunha, F.; Fangueiro, R. Self-Healing Composites: A Path to Redefining Material Resilience—A Comprehensive Recent Review. Materials 2024, 17, 4681.
Durão, M.L.; Nobre, L.; Mota, C.; Bessa, J.; Cunha, F.; Fangueiro, R. Self-Healing Composites: A Path to Redefining Material Resilience—A Comprehensive Recent Review. Materials2024, 17, 4681.
Durão, M.L.; Nobre, L.; Mota, C.; Bessa, J.; Cunha, F.; Fangueiro, R. Self-Healing Composites: A Path to Redefining Material Resilience—A Comprehensive Recent Review. Materials 2024, 17, 4681.
Abstract
Polymeric composites are prone to undergo damage, such as microcracks, during their operation, that can ultimately lead to catastrophic failure. To contradict such problem, effort has been put, by the scientific community, towards developing self-healing composites that, by mimicking biological systems, can autonomously and prematurely repair flaws, extending durability and improving security of materials. The present review explores the progress being made in such area, focusing on extrinsic self-healing methods, considering that they can be employed to a variety of materials. Reservoir-based techniques, that resort to capsules, hollow fibers or microvascular networks, and thermoplastic-based ones are overviewed, prioritizing innovative approaches made in recent years. At last, promising practical applications for self-healing composites are highlighted and future challenges and opportunities are pointed out.
Keywords
Polymer-matrix composites; Smart materials; Material Resilience; Self-healing
Subject
Chemistry and Materials Science, Materials Science and Technology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
