Recent years have witnessed the rapid developments of self-healing coatings because they can protect materials from diverse risks and are able to autonomously heal after being physically damaged. Here, a universal yet facile method is reported with high time and cost efficiency to fabricate transparent water-enabled self-healing coatings on various substrates by precipitating hydrogen-bonded tannic acid (TA)-polyethylene glycol (PEG) complexes in aqueous solution. The precipitated complexes coalesce to form uniform and transparent coatings on the substrates; after drying, mechanically robust coatings are obtained. TA endows such coatings with strong adhesion to a wide range of substrates and admirable antioxidant properties. Repeatable self-healing of the coatings is realized by simply exposing them to water or humid environment. Furthermore, these coatings can be readily erased by soaking them in basic solution, if needed.
Yong Du,Wen-Ze Qiu,Zi Liang Wu,Peng-Fei Ren,Qiang Zheng and Zhi-Kang Xu.
Advanced Materials Interfaces,1600167(2016)