Abstract

Microscale defects in materials damage the originally designed microstructure during their use, degrading
their mechanical properties/life expectancy. Therefore, various methods for damage repair in materials have been
proposed based on the concept of self-healing. However, self-healing for bulk metallic materials is still a challenge
due to their strong atomic bonding. Here, we introduce a sub-second electric pulsing which can enhance the kinetics
of microstructural changes to infinitely reset the damaged microstructure of metallic materials as a non-autonomous
self-healing method. The principle of microstructure resetting is explained based on three categories of resetting
cores: phase transformation, dislocation recovery, and recrystallization.