Nanostructured Self-Healing Polymers and Composites

摘要

Through this research, we successfully demonstrated self-healing with submicron and nanoscale consitutents. The research was driven by basic science and engineering of new processing routes for nanoencapsulation of healing chemistries and seamless integration of the self-healing functionality into polymer and polymer composites. Major accomplishments described in this report include - Identified three promising healing chemistries and successfully encapsulated the components in submicron capsules. - Functionalized the nanocapsules with a silica coating. - Dispersed high concentrations of submicron and nanocapsules in epoxy. - Demonstrated modest healing in bulk epoxy specimen. - Successfully integrated nanocapsules on glass and fiber surface for composite applications. - Developed a new protocol and demonstrated fiber/matrix interfacial healing with high efficiency during a single fiber pullout test.