The growing adoption of self-healing materials in electronics and automotive industries is driving their demand across the globe. These materials assist in increasing the lifespan of various systems, as they quickly repair the damages and recover. In the automotive industry, these materials (self-healing elastomers) are used for making anti-scratch polyurethane coatings, which are applied on the bodies of automobiles. Whereas, self-healing asphalt is extensively used in the construction industry. Owing to these factors, the surge in the construction and automotive industries is fueling the global demand for these materials.
Besides, these materials also provide long-term financial benefits, due to their self-repairing characteristics, which further propels their requirement in various industries, thereby causing the expansion of the global self-healing materials market. As per the market research firm, P&S Intelligence, the value of the market surged to $1.1 billion in 2020. Coatings, concrete, polymers, fiber-reinforced composites, asphalt, metals, and ceramics are the most commonly used self-healing materials across the world.
Out of these, the demand for polymers was observed to be the highest during the last few years, and it is predicted to rise even more in the forthcoming years. This will be because of the exceptional characteristics of self-healing polymers, such as excellent durability, resistance to abrasion, and high thermal stability. The major application areas of these materials are: transportation, general industrial, mobile devices, and building and construction activities. Amongst these, the requirement for these materials was found to be the highest in building and construction activities in the past.
This is attributed to the extensive use of these materials in the building and construction sector, primarily in non-residential buildings. Globally, the demand for these materials was observed to be the highest in Europe during the last few years, and this trend will continue in the coming years as well. This is credited to the existence of numerous self-healing material producing companies, surging research and development (R&D) activities in this domain, mushrooming use of these materials in the automotive industry, and implementation of government initiatives for improving product security in various fields in the region.
In recent years, the players operating in the self-healing materials market, such as Acciona S.A., The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, BASF SE, Huntsman International LLC, Applied Thin Films Inc., NEI Corporation, Autonomic Materials Inc., AkzoNobel N.V., and Covestro AG have focused heavily on product launches in order to gain an edge over their rivals and augment their revenue. For example, Autonomic Materials conducted a thorough examination of its self-healing materials with the help of protective coating systems in January 2020. It was proved via multiple trials that low-volatile organic compound (VOC) water-borne self-healing coatings are very useful for imparting resistance against corrosion and they are as good as their solvent-borne counterparts.
Thus, the demand for self-healing materials will rise enormously in the upcoming years, mainly because of their cost-effectiveness and surging construction activities and manufacturing of automobiles all over the world.
