The effect of temperature on the fracture behaviour of a microcapsule-loaded epoxy matrix was investigated.Microencapsulated epoxy and mercaptan-derivative healing agents were incorporated into an epoxy matrix to produce a polymer composite capable of self-healing.Maximum fracture loads were measured using the double-torsion method.Thermal aging at 55 and 110°C for 17 hours [hrs] was applied to heal the pre-cracked samples.The addition of microcapsules appeared to increase significantly the load carrying capacity of the epoxy after healing.Once healed, the composites achieved as much as 93-171% of its virgin maximum fracture load at 18, 55 and 110°C.The fracture behavior of the microcapsule-loaded epoxy matrix was influenced by the healing temperature.The high self-healing efficiency may be attributed to the result of the subsurface micro-crack pinning or deviation, and to a stronger microencapsulated epoxy and mercaptanderivative binder than that of the bulk epoxy.The results show that the healing temperature has a significant effect on recovery of load transferring capability after fracture.
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Lee et al. (2011) studied this question.
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