Abstract. Rapid retardation and arresting of fatigue crack are successfully realized in the epoxy composite containing microencapsulated epoxy and ethanol solution of antimony pentafluoride-ethanol complex (SbF 5 ·HOC 2 H 5 /HOC 2 H 5 ). The effects of (i) microcapsules induced-toughening, (ii) hydrodynamic pressure crack tip shielding offered by the released healing agent, and (iii) polymeric wedge and adhesive bonding of cured healing agent account for extension of fatigue life of the material. The two components of the healing agent can quickly react with each other soon after rupture of the microcapsules, and reconnect the crack only 20 seconds as of the test. The applied stress intensity range not only affects the healing efficiency, but also can be used to evaluate the healing speed. The present work offers a very fast healing system, and sets up a framework for characterizing speed of self-healing.Keywords: smart polymers, fracture and fatigue, self-healing, epoxy eXPRESS Polymer Letters Vol.11, No.11 (2017) [34,35]. In other words, retardation or arresting of fatigue crack is rather sensitive to the polymerization rate of healing agent. Therefore, the effect of fatigue crack induced liberation of healing agent can be conveniently monitored by mechanical response of the composite, i.e. in-situ crack re-binding and growth under cyclic stress. In contrast, other destructive characterization methods, like tensile [15] and impact tests [24,27], need time for manually recombining the fractured specimens for healing and quite a few fast healing agent would have been cured in advance. The measured dependence of healing efficiency on healing time has to be associated with large error. So far, fatigue resistance of self-healing polymers and polymer composites has not been extensively studied. Moreover, healing speed is not the main concern of these available works [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. In this context, the present investigation might add to the researches in this area.
Experimental 2.1. MaterialsDiglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (EPON 828, epoxy value: 0.53~0.54 mol/100 g), supplied by Shell Co., served as the composite's matrix and the polymerizable component of healing system. Antimony pentafluoride (SbF 5 ) was purchased from Tianjin Institute of Physical and Chemical Engineering of Nuclear Industry, China. Borontrifluoride-2,4-dimethylaniline-complex (BF 3 ·DMA) and methyl hexahydrophthalic anhydride (MHHPA) were bought from Energy Chemical, Shanghai, China. Ethanol, tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), styrene and methyl acrylate were supplied by Alfa Aesar GmbH, Germany. Prior to use, styrene and methyl acrylate were washed with sodium hydroxide aqueous solution (5 wt%), thereafter three times with water, dried over magnesium sulphate, and evaporated to dryness in vacuum. Azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) was obtained from Sigma-Aldrich, and purified by recrystallization.Melamine and formaldehyde were supplied by Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd, Shanghai, China.
Specimens preparationEpoxy mono...