Smart self-healing and self-reporting coatings – an overview

Smart coatings, with their potential to revolutionize diverse areas such as corrosion and biofouling protection, have gathered significant research attention. These coatings, designed to heal damage, sense, and respond to environmental changes, significantly enhance surface coatings' protection efficiency, providing much-improved durability and longevity with reduced manual intervention. The primary objective of this article is to provide a collective overview of the different smart protective coatings under a single roof, which is lacking in the current literature. The review covers smart self-healing, self-reporting, self-healing-reporting hybrid, and sensor-embedded coatings. The review discusses important recent reports on polymeric, inorganic, ceramic, and composite smart coatings and presents challenges and future perspectives. • Smart protective coating types are compared and overviewed under a single roof. • Progress in smart self-healing polymer, inorganic & ceramic coatings is discussed. • Types and approaches in smart self-reporting protective coatings are discussed. • Sensor-embedded coatings are briefed.