Development of Polyamide 6 (PA6)/Polycaprolactone (PCL) Thermoplastic Self-Healing Polymer Blends for Multifunctional Structural Composites

High-performance composites suffer from fatigue crack propagation during service. Traditional repair methods can be expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, research on with self-healing capabilities has considerably increased in the past decade. The aim of this work is to develop a polyamide 6 (PA6) matrix properties. Polycaprolactone (PCL) was used as healing agent melt compounded PA6. PCL caused decrease mechanical properties PA6, due its immiscibility low Nevertheless, acceptable fracture toughness values quasi-static mode were obtained. Samples thermally mended at 80 100 °C, efficiency assessed by comparing virgin repaired samples both impact mode. blend content 30 wt% showed limited (up 6%) mode, while an interesting capability (53%) detected under conditions. This discrepancy explained through microstructural analysis correlated different morphology. In fact, PA6 severely plasticized, brittle surface morphology favored flow thermal process.