Self‐healing materials in a circular economy

There are materials currently being developed that have the ability to self-healing or self-repair. While from a materials innovation perspective this technology delivers new and interesting functionalities, for product lifetime extension research, this provides an exciting opportunity to explore how this might facilitate product longevity. Utilising a literature review, this paper investigates what are the key benefits that self-healing material might offer product lifetime extension. Considering two main perspectives of product longevity, i.e. technical and service lifetime, five key benefits were identified. It is proposed that self-healing systems can help to: Enhance Physical Durability, Maintain Efficiency, Increase Reliability, Enhance Aesthetic Resilience and Reduce Cost and Risk of Future Repair. Lastly, to fully validate these factors future research and field testing of these technologies would need to be conducted to fully realise their product longevity potential.