Self-healing and repair of fabrics: A comprehensive review of the application toolkit

Self-healing fabrics respond to chemical and physical damage by restoring functional, structural, and morphological features. We present a comprehensive review of textile hybrids or composites capable of self-healing and repairing fabrics against damages across the micro- (µm), meso- (µm – mm), and macro-scale (>mm). The reviewed literature is organized in three sections presenting (i) the chemistry and fabrication principles of designing self-healing fabrics against increasing size scales of repair, (ii) stimuli-driven and autonomous healing, and (iii) the methods to characterize the recovery of wettability, barrier, morphological, mechanical, and other properties. The discussion of mainstream methods for developing self-healing fabrics focuses on coatings, composites, and specialized fabrication techniques required as the damage size grows from µm to mm to >mm. The section on stimuli-driven repair and autonomous recovery discusses the time scales associated with different damage repair, showing how external stimuli provide a higher driving force towards healing and accelerate material restoration than autonomous recovery. Finally, an array of optical, mechanical, and functional characterization techniques is discussed to evaluate the recovery yield and understand the repair mechanisms of the various fabrics. This review demonstrates the virtually limitless uses of next-generation self-healing systems, from separations to protective clothing, anti-fouling, and self-cleaning.