Faculty members from Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, Surjit Sahoo, Assistant Professor, Aniruddha Kundu, Assistant Professor, Vinodkumar Etacheri, Associate Professor of Practice, have published their latest work, “Smart self-healing polymers: innovations in material design and applications for electronic skin and energy devices,” in Journal of Materials Chemistry A with an Impact Factor: 9.5.
What if materials could heal themselves like human skin? Smart self-healing polymers are flexible materials designed with built-in chemical bonds that reconnect when damaged—automatically repairing tiny cracks without external help.
From bendable electronic skin for prosthetics and robotics to longer-lasting batteries and supercapacitors, these materials are paving the way for tougher, smarter, and more durable technologies.
Brief Abstract of the Research:
Smart self-healing polymers represent an emerging class of functional materials engineered to autonomously repair damage and restore performance after mechanical, thermal, or electrical stress. This paper reviews the latest innovations in molecular design strategies – including dynamic covalent bonds, supramolecular interactions, and reversible crosslinking – that enable intrinsic self-healing behavior. We further analyse how these materials have been integrated into next-generation applications such as flexible electronic skin (e-skin), soft robotics, wearable health sensors, and energy devices like batteries and supercapacitors. Emphasis is placed on structure-property relationships, healing kinetics, and performance trade-offs. Finally, the paper outlines the challenges in scalability, long-term durability, and multi-stimuli response, offering directions for future research.
Practical Implementation
- Wearable Health Monitors: flexible patches that heal after daily wear and tear, reducing device failure and discomfort.
- Soft Robotics: robots with durable ‘skin’ that self-repairs after impacts, improving reliability in hazardous environments.
- Energy Storage: self-healing battery binders and electrodes that repair micro-cracks, enhancing lifespan and safety.
Social Implications
- Sustainability: longer device life reduces electronic waste and resource consumption.
- Healthcare Impact: resilient wearables improve patient comfort and continuous health monitoring.
- Safety & Reliability: self-healing components reduce risk of sudden device failure, crucial for medical and automotive applications.
Collaborations:
The work was carried out through collaboration among researchers from:
- Department of Physics, Sree Sakthi Engineering College, Karamadai, Coimbatore-641104, India
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Jammu, Jammu & Kashmir-181221, India
- Department of Physics, Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur, Rajasthan-303007, India
- Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, SRM University-AP, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh 522240, India
- Institute of Technical Education and Research, S’O’A Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
Future Research Plans:
- Next-gen self-healing energy storage: integrating self-healing binders and electrolytes for flexible batteries and supercapacitors.
- Multifunctional e-skin platforms: combining self-healing with self-sensing and self-powered capabilities.
- Scalable fabrication methods: translating lab-scale self-healing polymers to manufacturable devices.
- Mechanistic studies: using in situ spectroscopy and electrochemical analysis to understand healing dynamics at interfaces.
The link to the full article:
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2026/TA/D5TA09101B