Self-healing thermosetting composites: concepts, chemistry and future advances

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9783527807130.ch3

This chapter focuses on smart self‐healing composite materials that attracted considerable interest in wind turbines, aeronautics, and space applications due to their strength, rigidity, and lightweight. As time goes on, cracks and fractures appear in the structure of these composite materials, which is mainly in the interface region between the organic matrix and inorganic reinforcement components (e.g., fiber or filler) because of stress concentrations. Accumulation of cracks at the interface of reinforcement and matrix causes deboning of the matrix from reinforcement, which leads to inefficient load transfer, and thus degradation of mechanical performance and reduction in the lifetime of the materials. The content of this chapter covers (i) capsule‐ and fiber‐based self‐healing materials, (ii) the interactions of organic (polymeric films, fibers, particles, coatings, etc.) and inorganic reinforcements (carbon fibers, glass fibers, etc.) in composites, (iii) chemistry and mechanisms of self‐healable interfaces, and (iv) the future advances in self‐healing of interfaces in polymeric composite materials.