Self-Healing Polymer Nanocomposites and their Applications

Self-healing materials can autonomously repair damage or cracks through dynamic mechanisms. These are designed in such a way that they are associated with a self-repairing mechanism supported by grafted functional groups on the backbone of the polymer. Among the self-healable polymer materials, polymer nanocomposites have drawn much attention in recent years in the growing field of materials science. This chapter is based on the methods of synthesis of self-healing polymer nanocomposites and provides a comprehensive discussion of the applications of selfhealing polymer nanocomposites. Owing to their long-term stability and self-healing ability, self-healing polymer nanocomposites are considered one of the best composite materials among the emerging smart materials. Polymer nanocomposites are widely used in electronics, textiles, protective paint and coatings, biomedical, structural materials, etc. This chapter is based on the methods of synthesis of self-healing polymer nanocomposites and provides a comprehensive discussion of the applications of self-healing polymer nanocomposites.

Keywords: Biomedical, Construction materials, Electronics, Polymer nanocomposites, Self-healing polymer, Textile.