SELF-HEALING OF EPOXY RESINS USING SELF ASSEMBLING HEALING AGENTS

We describe the concept of self-assembly through ionomer formation to achieve healing agents of critical molecular weight (MW). Thermal self-healing of epoxy resins could be induced while maintaining a low resin blend viscosity for direct fibre impregnation. DGEBA with a 'relatively low' MW was end-capped with 4-amino salicylic acid sodium salt to introduce ionomer functionality for self-assembly. Healing efficiencies were comparable to those obtained with 'high' MW linear epoxy and Phenoxy polymers of similar molecular structure. The non-reactive end capped DGEBA monomers, which cannot self-assembly had limited ability to heal thermoset epoxy resins used for industrial and aerospace applications.