Self-Healing Materials: Principles, Mechanisms, and Applications

Self-healing materials represent a remarkable evolution in materials science, transforming the ancient concept of materials repairing themselves into an engineered technology. Although Roman engineers unknowingly exploited self-healing lime mortar, the modern field emerged in 2001 with the development of microcapsule-based self-healing epoxy. Since then, research has expanded to polymers, concrete, metals, ceramics, hydrogels, coatings, and other advanced materials employing diverse chemical and physical healing mechanisms.This book provides a comprehensive yet accessible overview of self-healing materials, covering their fundamental principles, classification, healing mechanisms, material classes, characterization methods, and engineering applications. It examines polymers, elastomers, coatings, concrete, metals, ceramics, and hydrogels, while critically discussing how healing efficiency is measured and why reported values cannot always be directly compared. Applications in aerospace, civil infrastructure, biomedical systems, electronics, automotive components, and consumer products are explored.