Self-healing polymers are a new class of smart materials, which have the capability to autonomically repair themselves after damage, without the need for detection or repair by manual intervention. The self-healing materials developed by researchers at the University of Illinois (White et al. 2001, Brown et al. 2002, Rule et al. 2005, Cho et al. 2006, Wilson et al. 2007) respond to damage in the form of cracks by releasing a healing agent into the damaged area. This healing agent then solidifies to repair the damage. By incorporating secondary functional phases in the coating, scratches and cracks in the coating can be effectively sealed automatically whenever and wherever they occur, allowing the coating to recover protective function. This process has been demonstrated to work well for the autonomic repair of resins similar to those used as coatings (healing efficiencies up to 100% reported), including chemical systems and materials particularly well suited for corrosion protection applications.
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