An Insight into Self-Healing Polymer Microcapsule for Composite Structures

Abstract

Self-healing polymers that can regain their original structure are getting increasing interest globally to deal with the impacts of damage in composite materials automatically. Self-healing materials are equivalent to the defensive system of a living object that develops a scab for healing after a minor wound or bruise. Numerous attempts have been made to replicate this self-healing property into polymers and composites of polymers that are beneficial for applications in engineering such as high-tech, chemical, domestic plastic goods, and energy industries that are well reported in this paper. Cracks cause failure and are identified using specialized tools before being manually fixed, which is ineffective because it requires meticulous labor performance. A potential treatment for this is incorporating capsule-based polymer into the composites. This review paper gives insights particularly into self-healing microcapsules that can intrinsically repair the damage brought on by regular use. The types of capsule embedment, chemistries associated with it, encapsulation mechanism, and their production techniques are extensively discussed. Since the capsule-embedded composites decrease inefficiency over time brought on by degradation, the fabrication and characterization methods are also reviewed, preventing material failure costs.