defined as the ability of materials to self-repair and recover their mechanical properties when being damaged
is quite significant for materials in extending their service time and improving their usage safety. The ionic pairs in ionomers tend to aggregate due to electrostatic interaction and incompatibility with the main chain
forming dynamic physical crosslinks
thus endowing inonomers with the ability to self-heal without the aid of extrinsic healing agents. Herein
the self-healing progress and mechanisms
currently investigated self-healing ionomers
methods of triggering their self-healing behaviors as well as factors that may influence their self-healing ability are systematically reviewed.