Self-healing polymers for soft actuators and robots

Advances in artificial intelligence technology bring a rising demand on stimuli responsive actuating materials and soft actuators. By the virtue of easy deformation and mechanical resilience, polymers with unique properties like shape-memory, electro/magneto-active, and thermal/humidity/chemical-responsiveness have emerged as promising candidates for soft robotics. Damage tolerance or a degree of self-healing ability improves soft robots endowed with such materials longevity, and provides safeguards for the function and potentially reduce costs. The combination of stimuli-responsive actuation and self-healing function involves elaborate supramolecular chemical and physical structure designs, being a challenging topic within the field of soft robotics and thus intriguing wide research interests. This review aims to discuss some highlights in convenient combination of stimuli-responsive micro-nanostructures and dynamic bonds chemistry within last 5 years, that further give the actuators recovery of mechanic and function, and improved comprehensive properties. Through a review of the most remarkable paradigms, the order organization of dynamic bonds with liquid crystal mesogenic units, functional micro-nanofillers, hierarchical gradient interfaces, etc. are outlined. Finally, the perspectives and main challenges of self-healable actuators are summarized. It is anticipated that this review will provide scientists with insights and guidance for the future innovative research in this field. image