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A Review of Self-healing Metals: Fundamentals, Design Principles and Performance

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Acta Metallurgica Sinica (English Letters) Aims and scope

Abstract

Self-healing metals possess the capability to autonomously repair structural damage during service. While self-healing concepts remain challenging to be realized in metals and metallic systems due to the small atomic volume of the mobile atoms, the slow diffusion unless at high temperatures and the strong isotropic metallic bonds, the scientific interest has increased sharply and promising progress is obtained. This article provides a comprehensive and updated review on the developments and limitations associated with the various modes of potentially healable damage induced in metals and alloys, i.e., stress-induced damage, irradiation-induced damage in bulk materials and contact damage in corrosion protective coatings. The spontaneous intrinsic healing mechanisms not requiring external assistance other than the material operating at the right temperature and an assisted healing mechanism with external intervention are reviewed. Promising strategies to achieve self-healing in metals are identified. Finally, we give some prospects for future research directions in self-healing metals.

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Reprinted with permission from Refs. [27, 30, 32]

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Reprinted from Ref. [33] with permission from Elsevier

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Reprinted with permission from Ref. [47]

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Reprinted with permission from Ref. [52]

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Reprinted with permission from Ref. [54]

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Reproduced with permission from Ref. [68]. Copyright (2015) American Chemical Society

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Reprinted from Ref. [71] with permission from Elsevier

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Reprinted from Refs. [73, 74] with permission from Elsevier

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51701095) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (Grant No. BK20170798).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China

    Shasha Zhang

  2. Key Laboratory of Materials Preparation and Protection for Harsh Environment (Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Nanjing, 211106, China

    Shasha Zhang

  3. Fundamental Aspects of Materials and Energy Group, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 15, 2629 JB, Delft, The Netherlands

    Niels van Dijk

  4. Novel Aerospace Materials Group, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS, Delft, The Netherlands

    Sybrand van der Zwaag

  5. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Sybrand van der Zwaag

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  1. Shasha Zhang
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Zhang, S., van Dijk, N. & van der Zwaag, S. A Review of Self-healing Metals: Fundamentals, Design Principles and Performance. Acta Metall. Sin. (Engl. Lett.) 33, 1167–1179 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40195-020-01102-3

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