Abstract
Self-healing antifouling materials have gained rapidly increasing interest over the past decade and have been studied and used in a rapidly increasing range of applications. Recent developments and challenges in self-healing antifouling materials are summarized in four sections: first, the different mechanisms for both antifouling and self-healing are briefly discussed. Second, three main categories of self-healing antifouling materials based on surface replenishing and dynamic covalent and noncovalent interactions are discussed, with a focus on the preparation, characterization, and central characteristics of different self-healing antifouling materials. Third, different types of potential applications of self-healing antifouling materials are summarized, such as injectable hydrogels and oil/water separations. Finally, a summary of future development of the field is provided, and a number of critical limitations that are still outstanding are highlighted.