Non-centrosymmetric molecular crystals have a plethora of applications, such as piezoelectric transducers, energy storage and nonlinear optical materials owing to their unique structural order which is absent in other synthetic materials. As most crystals are brittle, their efficiency declines upon prolonged usage due to fatigue or catastrophic failure, limiting their utilities. Some natural substances, like bone, enamel, leaf and skin, function efficiently, last a life-time, thanks to their inherent self-healing nature. Therefore, incorporating self-healing ability in crystalline materials will greatly broaden their scope. Here, we report single crystals of a dibenzoate derivative, capable of self-healing within milliseconds via autonomous actuation. Systematic quantitative experiments reveal the limit of mechanical forces that the self-healing crystals can withstand. As a proof-of-concept, we also demonstrate that our self-healed crystals can retain their second harmonic generation (SHG) with high efficiency. Kinematic analysis of the actuation in our system also revealed its impressive performance parameters, and shows actuation response times in the millisecond range.

非中心对称分子晶体由于其独特的结构顺序而具有其他合成材料所不具备的广泛应用，例如压电换能器、能量存储和非线性光学材料。由于大多数晶体都很脆，长时间使用后，由于疲劳或灾难性故障，其效率会下降，从而限制了其实用性。一些天然物质，如骨头、牙釉质、叶子和皮肤，由于其固有的自愈性质，可以有效地发挥作用，并且可以终生使用。因此，在晶体材料中加入自愈能力将大大拓宽其范围。在这里，我们报道了二苯甲酸酯衍生物的单晶，能够通过自主驱动在几毫秒内进行自我修复。系统的定量实验揭示了自愈晶体可以承受的机械力的极限。作为概念验证，我们还证明我们的自愈晶体可以高效率地保留其二次谐波产生 (SHG)。我们系统中驱动的运动学分析还揭示了其令人印象深刻的性能参数，并显示了毫秒范围内的驱动响应时间。