Self-healing polymers for energy applications: molecular insights, material design, and grid-scale reliability

Modern energy infrastructures with advanced functions are revolutionizing the way we live; however, their requirements for materials that can perform reliably under severe conditions, including high stress and extended periods, continually pose significant challenges. Conventional polymers are widely utilized as active materials in various energy-related devices, mainly because of their tailorable electrical properties, cost-effectiveness, flexibility, facile processability, and lightweight character. Nevertheless, they suffer from irreversible damage, such as environmental degradation, fatigue, and cracking. This can reduce the reliability of power grids and related systems. Self-healing polymers, due to their capability to autonomously heal from cracks and restore their mechanical and electrical properties, offer a groundbreaking prospect to extend service life and lower maintenance costs across energy grids. Despite significant progress in developing and studying self-healing polymers, their widespread application in energy infrastructure remains limited. Hence, this review aims to establish a cohesive framework that covers the molecular mechanisms of self-healing, thermodynamics and kinetics, design principles, and recent advances in energy systems, especially in energy infrastructures such as smart coatings, distribution and transmission systems, and smart monitoring systems. As the trail from laboratory scale to real world always faces many obstacles to overcome, in this review, we aim to discover these challenges. An essential shift towards sustainability and the self-healing polymers’ potential to provide a greener life is also discussed.