Synergistic healing mechanism of self-healing ceramics coating

Self-healing ceramics coatings show a lot of promising applications in oxidation and corrosion protection under a high-temperature oxidation environment. However, ceramics coatings only depending on mobile phase filling and volume expansion from oxidation-induced healing reveal a slow healing rate of formed micron-sized cracks under actual utilization conditions. Here, we report the synergistic cracks self-healing mechanism (oxidation-induced healing and precipitation-induced healing) of Al-modified SiC coating with nitrogen heat treatment in a high-temperature oxidation environment. Most of the in situ cracks are completely healed through the synergistic self-healing mechanism at 1500 °C in an air atmosphere. Likewise, the coating with better self-healing abilities also has superior oxidation resistance. This paradigm has the potential to revolutionize the existing self-healing ceramics coatings.