Self-Healing Polymeric Materials and Composites for Additive Manufacturing

Self-healing polymers have received widespread attention due to their ability to repair damage autonomously and increase material stability, reliability, and economy. However, the processability of self-healing materials has yet to be studied, limiting the application of rich self-healing mechanisms. Additive manufacturing effectively improves the shortcomings of conventional processing while increasing production speed, accuracy, and complexity, offering great promise for self-healing polymer applications. This article summarizes the current self-healing mechanisms of self-healing polymers and their corresponding additive manufacturing methods, and provides an outlook on future developments in the field.