Self-Healing Polymer Nanocomposite Materials by Joule Effect

Bifunctional Polymer-Metal Nanocomposite Ion Exchange Materials

The unusual electrical, optical, magnetic, and chemical properties of metal colloids (better known in nowadays as metal nanoparticles, MNPs) have attracted increasing interest of scientists and technologists during the last decade. In fact, although Nanoscience and Nanotechnology are quite recent disciplines, there have already been a high number of publications that discuss these topics. [1-11...

Functional Polymer Nanocomposite Materials from Microfibrillated Cellulose

Polydimethylsiloxane-Based Self-Healing Materials

Self-healing represents a new paradigm for active and responsive materials. As first demonstrated by White et al., and subsequently in additional publications, polymer composites can be engineered to chemically self-heal. However, the chemistry of previous systems possesses inherent shortcomings due to the potential side reactions with the polymer matrix and air. Here we present a new, chemical...

Nanocapsules for self-healing materials

We report an in situ encapsulation method demonstrating over an order of magnitude size reduction for the preparation of urea–formaldehyde (UF) capsules filled with a healing agent, dicyclopentadiene (DCPD). Capsules with diameters as small as 220 nm are achieved using sonication techniques and an ultrahydrophobe to stabilize the DCPD droplets. The capsules possess a uniform UF shell wall (77 n...

Self-healing structural composite materials

A self-healing fiber-reinforced structural polymer matrix composite material is demonstrated. In the composite, a microencapsulated healing agent and a solid chemical catalyst are dispersed within the polymer matrix phase. Healing is triggered by crack propagation through the microcapsules, which then release the healing agent into the crack plane. Subsequent exposure of the healing agent to th...