The development of mechanochromic or self‐reporting polymers that can indicate damage or fatigue of materials with an optical signal has become of paramount interest to ensure the reliability of the materials and prevent catastrophic failure. This technology can potentially find usefulness for various applications, including in situ monitoring of mechanical events and structural health monitoring systems. An emerging and versatile approach to achieve mechanochromic properties relies on the encapsulation of dye solutions that can be released and activated (chemically or physically) when the walls of the capsules are mechanically damaged. While the mechanochromic effect can be achieved with different types of dyes and operating principles, this framework can also be designed with encapsulating‐containers of different shapes and shell materials, such as microcapsules, hollow glass fibers, vascular networks, and micelles, making this concept applicable to a broad range of polymer matrices. An overview of the different encapsulation approaches that have been employed to prepare mechanochromic polymers is given, with a focus on the containers used for this purpose. A brief description of the containers’ preparation is provided, and their associated chromic operating principles and progress in their designs are reviewed.

中文翻译：

---

使用封装系统的基于聚合物的机械变色复合材料

能够通过光信号指示材料损坏或疲劳的机械变色或自报告聚合物的开发，对于确保材料的可靠性并防止灾难性故障至关重要。这项技术可能会发现对各种应用的有用性，包括机械事件的现场监测和结构健康监测系统。实现机械变色性质的新兴且通用的方法依赖于染料溶液的包封，当胶囊的壁被机械损坏时，染料溶液可以被释放和（化学或物理地）活化。虽然可以使用不同类型的染料和操作原理来实现机械变色效果，但也可以使用不同形状和外壳材料的封装容器来设计此框架，例如微囊，中空玻璃纤维，维管网和微团，使这一概念适用于各种聚合物基体。概述了用于制备机械变色聚合物的不同封装方法，重点是用于此目的的容器。提供了容器制备的简要说明，并综述了其相关的铬操作原理及其设计进展。