Self-healing Materials. Principles & Technology, 2nd Edition

The self-healing phenomenon, adapted from living things, was for a long time an exciting topic of discussion on the potential improvements of human-made products, but for quite a while, it became applicable reality useful in many manufactured products. Ironically, the expectations from the healing of commercial products are higher than in the case of living things (for example, skin healing leaves scars that would not be acceptable for self-healed phone, watch, radio receiver, etc.) The most up-to-date information presented in this book gives a full account of means, ways, and practical results to prevent discarding products because they were once damaged.

The book has three major sections organized into fifteen chapters. The first section contains a chapter that discusses the well-established mechanisms of self-healing, which can be potentially applied in the development of new materials that have the ability to repair themselves without or with minimal human intervention. All theoretical background required and known to date to understand these principles is included in this section. The full chapter on chemical and physical changes, which occur during self-healing, is also part of this section.

The second part of this book compares the parameters of different self-healing technological processes. The process parameters discussed include fault detection mechanisms, methods of triggering and tuning off the healing processes, the activation energy of self-healing processes, the means and methods of delivery of the healing substances to the defect locations, self-healing timescale (rate of self-healing), and the extent of self-healing (healing efficiency, recovery of properties, etc.). Each of these topics is discussed in a separate chapter.

The third part is devoted to the mathematical modelling of the processes of self-healing (molecular dynamics simulation), the morphology of healed areas, and the discussion of applying the most important analytical techniques to the evaluation of the self-healing processes.

The final section of the book includes:

• Practical advice on the selection of additives for self-healing formulation
• Methods of self-healing of different polymers
• Application of self-healing technology in different groups of products
• This part is based on practical knowledge, the existing patents, the published paper, and useful application notes. Thirty polymers and twenty-seven groups of products are selected for this discussion based on their frequency of applying the technology of self-healing

The expected audience for this book includes people working in the industries listed in the table of contents (chapter 15) and on the polymers (chapter 14), university professors and students, those working on the reduction of waste and recycling, and all environmental protection agencies, services, and research.