Self-healing coatings for mechanical damage restoration: Principles, design and applications

This paper aims to review the recent achievements in field of self-healing coatings, as an important class of smart coatings. In this paper, basic definitions and terminology related to the self-healing coatings are presented. Then, various strategies and mechanisms which have been recently implemented in developing of self-healing coatings are introduced. Extrinsic and intrinsic strategies and different mechanisms including microcapsules, hollow fibers, and reversible covalent and non-covalent linkages are the most important approaches which are reviewed. It was demonstrated that the intrinsic strategies are simpler and more efficient in comparison with extrinsic ones. Finally, potential applications and commercialized technologies in field of self-healing coatings are summarized.