Room-Temperature Intrinsic Self-Healing Materials: A review

Amid pressing global challenges such as energy crises and climate change, intrinsic self-healing materials featuring inherent sustainability have gained significant attention over the past two decades. Most developed conventional intrinsic self-healing approaches rely on external stimuli, which restricts their practical applications. Consequently, there has been a recent surge in research attention towards room-temperature intrinsic selfhealing materials. This review systematically summarizes the research progress in this field. Firstly, three main room-temperature self-healing mechanisms are introduced, including dynamic non-covalent bonds, dynamic covalent bonds, and synergistic multiple dynamic bonds. Then, the latest applications of room-temperature intrinsic self-healing materials in fields such as coatings, soft electronics, energy-storage devices, biomaterials, and construction materials, are highlighted. Finally, an outlook on the future research directions in this cuttingedge field is offered, aiming to provide valuable insights for the design of room-temperature intrinsic self-healing materials.