Self-Healing Polymers, Proteins and Composites

Dear Colleagues,

Self-healing is the remarkable ability of living organisms to repair their own damage by themselves. Inspired from nature, the great challenge now is to create and develop polymers and composites with high potential for self-healing, offering alternatives to the current options and moving toward materials with extended service lifetime for various applications. Most of these are innovative (bio)materials with excellent healing performance, such as ionomers, semiconductors, self-assembling systems, hydrogels, micro- and nanoparticles, coatings, films and membranes, capsules, vascular networks, shape memory or stimuli-induced self-healing materials, etc. They are able to spontaneously repair themselves after damage or degradation, recovering structural integrity and functionality by increasing the rate of healing versus the rate of damage.

For this Special Issue, we are looking for articles that illustrate the latest developments in polymers and polymer composites providing a healing response. The discussion can be focused on the following aspects (in addition to any other aspects related to the main topic).

• The state-of-the-art of bio-inspired self-healing materials—lessons from nature for enhancing healing action and limitations for implementation;
• New approaches for self-healing in polymers and their composites—intrinsic and extrinsic self-healing as well as molecular mechanisms and key concepts;
• Characterization of self-healing polymers and materials—triggering and tuning self-healing behavior, recovery properties and assessment of healing, and healing efficiency;
• Engineering self-healing smart (bio-nano)composite materials for various applications in healthcare (hydrogels for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, smart drug-delivery systems, etc.), sensors and actuators, coatings, biomimetics, electronics, self-cleaning textiles, bio-inspired robotics, dental composites, polymer-modified concrete, resins and fiber-reinforced resins, concrete and cementitious composites, automotive industry, aerospace engineering, etc.;
• Self-healing polymer systems as smart materials of the future.

Original research contributions, short communications, discussions of challenges and opportunities, as well as review articles are all welcome.

Dr. Maria Bercea
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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