When considering self-healing materials, the first material that comes to mind is a polymer. Polymers’ intrinsic healing capabilities and the ease of combining polymers with extrinsic healing methods have been a focus of materials research for many years. But what about self-healing in other materials?

One of the main applications of self-healing materials is to heal cracking, which is a prevalent problem in ceramic materials, such as thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) used in turbine engines. Thermal cycling eventually results in delamination of TBCs, limiting the lifetime of these coatings.