Self-Healing Materials for Analyte Sensing

The idea of self-healing materials for analyte sensing was inspired by the wound healing ability of the sensory organs such as nose for odors, tongue for tastes, or skin for pressure, temperature, and location. It is noteworthy that "self-healing" property is a new trend of bioinspired device technologies, specifically sensing platforms (e.g., electronic skin-e-skin, electronic nose-e-nose, and electronic tongue-e-tongue) or a combination of all. Their applications extend from healthcare to environmental sciences. This chapter is the state-of-the-art update focusing on the key chemistry of self-healing materials as well as their composites and the fabrication methodologies in order to integrate these materials into sensing devices including fluorescence sensors, chemiresistors, field-effect transistors, electrochemical sensors, etc. Furthermore, the strong and weak points in the development of each platform were sharply highlighted and criticized, respectively. Several ideas conducted led to the improvement of self-healing materials for analyte sensing.