Self-healing materials for electronic applications: an overview

Increase in entropy and damage are ever occurring phenomena in nature. Life of human beings is a clear example of increasing entropy with age. No one can stop the one-way process of increasing entropy, however repairing the damages helps to slow down this process. Living organisms have a natural mechanism of healing the damages with in a limit. However, this mechanism is not inherent in case of non-living materials, but this feature could be incorporated in these materials. This is a focus of researchers since last many years. Self-healing materials have found wide applications in areas like building materials, tensile materials, electronics and biomedical applications. This paper presents the applications of self-healing materials in development of transistors, sensors, optical devices, printable conductive inks, conductive polymer hydrogels and cementitious materials. Different classifications of self-healing materials, along with their physical and chemical behaviour, have been discussed. Some of the potential applications, advantages and challenges have been highlighted.