Self Healing Materials are materials that have the build in capabillity to repair (early stage) damage, that would finally lead to material failure, autonomously, or with minor external stimulus. Evidently nature is a major source of inpiration for his type of research: living organisms already possess the property of autonomous repair of damage (wound healing, recovery of broken limbs).

Although the phenomenon of Self Healing has been recognized in materials throughout history, especially with regards to biological systems, it was only recently that the property of Self Healing was seriously considered as a desirable function for man-made materials. Beginning with the first successful incorporation of self healing functionality in a (man-made) epoxy-system via micro-encapsulation by Scott White and collaborators at the University of Illinois (S. R. White, N. R. Sottos, P. H. Geubelle, J. S. Moore, M. R. Kessler, S. R. Sriram, E. N. Brown, and S. Viswanathan, "Autonomic healing of polymer composites," Nature, vol. 409, pp. 794-797, 2001), research groups throughout the world have started to explore concepts and materials systems that impart self- healing properties for a variety of applications. Now the field is gaining momentum, and the first glimpses of a newly emerging scientific community becomes visible.

The Delft Centre for Materials, at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, has allocated a major part of its budget for developing this new common, and essentially multidisciplinary, research line on Self Healing Materials at the TU Delft, and The Netherlands at large. To this aim, the Delft Centre for Materials has taken the initiative for a National Research Programme (IOP) in the field of Self Healing Materials. In September 2005 this effort was granted by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.

A full list of the ongoing projects supported by the IOP program can be found here.

Recent projects on Self Healing Materials which are supported by the Delft Centre for Materials research are:

A mathematical model to describe self-healing materials in three dimensions
Dr. Serguey Zemskov/Dr. Fred Vermolen

Modelling of the repeated Self-Healing process in materials
Dr. Olaf Herbst/Dr. Akke Suiker

Prototyping novel intermetallics for transformation toughening
Dr. Emre Tasci/Dr. Marcel Sluiter

Chemo-Mechanical Investigation of Healing in Bituminous Materials
Dr. Niki Kringos/Dr. Tom Scarpas

New perspectives for old mortars: self-healing behaviour of lime mortars
Dr. Barbara Lubelli/Prof. Rob van Hees

Engineering Plastics with Self-Healing Capabilities for Coating and Structural Applications
Dr. Tien Dung Bui/Dr. Theo Dingemans

Exploration of the self-healing potential of ionic liquids for solid materials
Dr. Marcello Luppi/Prof. Barend Thijsse