Self-healing materials for flexible and stretchable electronics

Abstract

Flexible and stretchable electronics promote the development of electronic devices in a more flexible, convenient, and human-friendly direction, showing huge application potential in wearable electronic technology, electronic skin, medical health monitoring, and other fields. Integrating self-healing capabilities into flexible and stretchable electronics can significantly improve their performance and longevity while reducing maintenance needs and environmental impact, pushing them toward greater reliability, durability, and innovation. This review provides a detailed discussion of the design strategies of self-healing materials (SHMs) for flexible and stretchable electronics, as well as the latest advances of SHMs in representative flexible electronic devices, including flexible heaters, sensors, self-powered devices, and electronic skins. First, the evaluation of the key properties of SHMs (self-healing properties and mechanical properties) is briefly introduced. Then, the design strategy of SHMs for self-healing flexible electronic devices is summarized based on the self-healing mechanism. And the common preparation methods and latest progress of representative self-healing flexible electronic devices are provided. Finally, the main current challenges and further development directions of self-healing flexible and stretchable electronics are prospected. This review is expected to help deepen relevant researchers' understanding of the design strategies and progress of self-healing flexible and stretchable electronics and further promote their rapid development.