Self-Healing Composite Materials

From Design to Applications

Anish Khan, Mohammad Jawaid, Shiju N. Raveendran, Abdullah Mohammed Ahmed Asiri

• Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780128173541
• eBook ISBN: 9780128173558
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Materials Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Self-Healing Composite Materials: From Designs to Applications provides a unique resource on self-healing composites for materials scientists and engineers in academia, as well as researchers involved in the aerospace, automotive, wind-generation, construction, consumer goods and marine industries. There is a huge demand for self-healing composites that respond to their environment like living matter. Unlike other composites, self-healing composites are combined with carbon materials and resins to form a recoverable composite material. This book covers the manufacturing, design and characterization of self-healing composites, including their morphological, structural, mechanical, thermal and electrical properties.The title begins with mathematical background and then considers innovative approaches to physical modeling, analysis and design techniques, providing a robust knowledge of modern self-healing composites with commercial applications.- Covers composite fabrication from polymer, nano oxides, epoxy and plastics- Gives detailed examples on how self-healing composites may be used- Provides readers with a robust knowledge of self-healing composites- Presents a unified approach to these human-friendly, commercially valuable materials

1

Electrically conductive self-healing materials: preparation, properties, and applications

M. Ramesh¹, R. Arun Ramnath², Anish Khan^3,4, Aftab Aslam Parwaz Khan^3,4 and Abdullah Mohamed Asiri^3,4, ¹Department of Mechanical Engineering, KIT-Kalaignarkarunanidhi Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, India, ²Department of Mechanical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India, ³Chemistry Department, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, ⁴Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Self-healing materials have attracted the attention of many researchers over the last decades in order to provide satisfactory material properties and outstanding product durability. Self-healing has great potential to extend the service life of a material, and this capability has been regarded as an important strategy when designing a sustainable infrastructure. Preparing ultrahigh stretchable, tough, and self-healing materials is the key component for the artificial intelligence apparatus which can produce high mechanical properties and prolong the service life. This chapter presents a comprehensive summary of the state-of-the-art investigations concerning preparation, characterization, and enhancement of various electrically conductive self-healing materials. From the literature, it was found that the samples had an enhanced self-healing capability because of the electrical and thermal self-healing mechanisms.

Keywords

Self-healing; electrically conductive; properties; characterization

1.1 Introduction

Materials which are natural or synthetic are subject to degradation over its entire usage in the lifetime. Due to its repeated usage structural materials are prone to microcracks in the surface leading to sudden rupture or failure. In such circumstances, repairing the same material and producing it again with the desired efficiency is not a reliable choice. Scientists are inspired by the natural process of blood clotting in human body and incorporating the same concept in structural materials is impossible due to the difficulties of the healing nature. Self-healing materials are those which regain its structural integrity without any evidence of damages in case of failure. Self-healing can be termed as the ability of the material to regain from defects automatically without any evidences of defects or damages across the surface. In naturally available and man-made materials, a material does not exhibit a self-healing property. Self-healing can be considered as the recovery of mechanical strength and other material properties in circumstances of failure or rupture of a material. In man-made materials self-healing properties are incorporated by means of an external source or an agent. In case of certain materials even microvoids can be filled and healed to recover the desired properties. Crack initiation and propagation caused due to repeated loading results in fatigue failure of electrical components. Materials with self-healing capabilities were developed by many researchers over several decades. Composites reinforced with fibers having epoxy as matrix has healing agents which are microencapsulated provide bonding and conjoin the cracks. Self-healing materials are in the development phase and far away from the stage of commercialization. White et al. [1] developed self-healing system consisting of microencapsulated dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) monomer and a catalyst embedded along with the epoxy matrix. When the crack propagates, embedded microcapsules get released into the crack plane by means of capillary action. Bonding of two crack faces together is done by contact with catalyst and the DCPD monomer. It is illustrated self-healing mechanism of epoxy vinyl esters based on the polycondensation of polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) [2]. In this research work, tin catalyst was encapsulated and phase separation of PDMS was done in the matrix. Materials such as polymers, paints, metals and alloys, and coatings have their own self-healing mechanisms and are highly influenced by the material microstructure. Damage detection in composite materials in the form of sublaminate locations is difficult to be analyzed and detected by the human eye. Several novel approaches for damage detection have been originated by incorporating such capability in the material itself. Piezoelectric sensors, magnetostrictive materials, and other optical fibers are embedded in materials to detect damages in the structure. With the usage of such smart materials, the extent of damage and its impact needs to be quantified by nondestructive techniques. Depending on the extent of damage, decision is made that either the material is repaired or the material is removed from the service without any further usage. Contrary to the naturally available and some synthetic materials, certain biological systems respond to damage and external stress by providing an automatic or self-induced healing response to the damage incurred. This occurs mostly in plants and animals producing certain liquids when the system is damaged or injured, thereby healing, curing, and regenerating at the location of damage. In human anatomy the structure of skeletal bone enables biological fluids consisting of clotting agents, nutrients to flow in the blood vessels into a fractured region facilitating the development of fibrocartillage which calcifies the dense lamellar bone.

Research investigation done in the earlier decade has led to the foundation of self-healing polymeric materials that mimic the salient features found in the biological systems. These self-healing polymers and other materials serve as a reliable choice in extending the life of the polymeric components autonomically by healing the microcracks developed anywhere in the material. Several applications of self-healing materials are found in aerospace, prosthetics, infrastructural, electronics, and electrical applications. The significant benefits achieved through self-healing materials are quite high; there are certain risk factors and practical limitations found in it. The practical limitations include changes in original properties, healing functionality to the environmental conditions, crack healing kinetics, and the cost factors involved. An alternative approach to damage prevention is damage management, which forms the basis for the origin and development of self-healing materials. The effect of autonomous healing process with the progress of damage with reference to time is schematically illustrated in Fig. 1.1.

Figure 1.1 Damage development stages in self-healing material.

The material shown in Fig. 1.1A illustrates that there is a single healing action which eliminates the damage occurred completely. Once the occurred damage has been healed, any further damage formation leads to final fracture. This material has been specifically designed for single healing action. Fig. 1.1B presents the material capable of exhibiting multiple healing effects in which the damage is partially removed from the material. After several healing cycles, the material fails to exhibit self-healing ability and failure occurs. Material presented in Fig. 1.1C exhibits a higher self-healing ability and there is no such accumulation of failure. Based on the loading conditions, the material has an infinite lifetime and behaves as an ideal self-healing material. Based on these different materials shown in Fig. 1.1A–C, self-healing materials hav...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of contributors
• Preface
• 1. Electrically conductive self-healing materials: preparation, properties, and applications
• 2. Basics of self-healing composite materials
• 3. Self-healing polymers for composite structural applications
• 4. Potential self-healing functionality in a composite structure: methodology and applications
• 5. Self-repairing fiber polymer composites: mechanisms and properties
• 6. Self-repairing property of a polymer solid with enhanced segmental motion
• 7. Self-healing of polymer materials and their composites
• 8. Self-healing composite coatings with protective and anticorrosion potentials: classification by healing mechanism
• 9. Graphene-based material for self-healing: mechanism, synthesis, characteristics, and applications
• 10. Enhancements in self-curing composites
• 11. Principal and mechanism of self-repair of polymer matrix composite materials
• 12. Composite for self-repairing covering to hinder corrosion
• 13. Synthesis of carbon self-repairing porous hybrid composites for supercapacitors
• 14. Effect of self-healing on zeolite-immobilized bacterial cementitious mortar composites
• 15. Self-healing concrete-based composites
• 16. Self-healing aspects of graphene oxide/polymer nanocomposites
• 17. Self-repairing hollow-fiber polymer composites
• 18. Self-healing of structural composites containing common thermoplastics enabled or not by nanotechnology as healing agent
• 19. Concept of self-repair and efficiency measurement in polymer matrix composites
• 20. Self-healing fiber-reinforced epoxy composites
• 21. Mechanical behavior of self-healing polyethylenimine/polyacrylic acid multilevel polymer films
• 22. Self-healing polymer composites and its chemistry
• Index