Development of self-healing materials is an influential step towards greener technologies and a sustainable future. We propose a novel approach of post-modification of polymers by a gas-phase infiltration technique, which enriched the variety of existing self-healing inorganic materials with the class of metal oxides. The successfully tested zinc and indium oxides are the constituting materials of the most widely used transparent conductive oxides, such as indium tin oxide (ITO) or indium-doped zinc oxide (IZO). Therefore, this invention might benefit numerous technological areas: flexible electronics, wearable sensors, photovoltaics, displays, energy by potentially enhancing the durability and longevity of the materials.
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