Self-Healing Materials as New Biologically Inspired Materials

Abstract:

Lightweight, high strength fibre-reinforced polymeric composites are leading materials in many advanced applications including biomedical components. These materials offer the feasibility to incorporate multi functionalities due to their internal architecture, heterogeneity of materials and the flexibility of combining them using currently available fabrication methods. In spite of the excellent properties of these materials, their failure is still a questionable and not well predicted event. Delamination, debonding and micro-cracks are only some of the failure mechanisms that affect the matrices of polymer based composites. More complex cases exist with the combination of multiple failure mechanisms. In such cases a self-repairing mechanism that can be auto-triggered in the matrix material once the crack has been formed, would be very beneficial for all the applications of these materials, reducing maintenance costs and increasing their safety and reliability. Self-healing materials have been studied for more than a decade by now, with the specific objective of reducing the risks and costs of cracking and damage in a wide range of materials. Different approaches have been taken to create such materials, depending on the kind of material that needs to be repaired. The most popular methods developed for polymers and polymer reinforced composites are considered in this review. These methods include materials with micro-capsules containing a healing agent, and composites with matrices that can self-heal the cracks by repairing the broken molecular links upon external heating. While the first approach to healing has been widely used and studied in the past decade, in this review we focus on the second approach since less is reported in the literature and more difficult is the development of the materials based on such a method.

• Periodical: Journal of Biomimetics, Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering (Volume 16)
• Pages: 11-25
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/JBBTE.16.11
• Online since: December 2012
• Authors: Fabrizia Ghezzo, Xi Geng Miao
• Keywords: Bio-Inspired Materials, Bio-Mimetic, Composite Material, Diels-Alder Cyclo-Addition, Self-Healing

References

[1] M. Boncheva, G. Whitesides. Dekker Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and nanotechnology, CRC Press, (2004).

[2] X. Li, Z-H Xu, R. Wang. In Situ Observation of Nanograin Rotation and Deformation in Nacre. Nano Letters, 6 (10), (2006), 2301-2304.

DOI: 10.1021/nl061775u

[3] C. Ortiz, M. Boyce. Bioinspired Structural Materials. Science, 319 (5866), (2008), 1053-4.

[4] F. Barthelat. Nacre from mollusk shells: a model for high-performance structural materials. Bioinspir. Biomim, 5 (3), (2010), 035001.

DOI: 10.1088/1748-3182/5/3/035001

[5] J. Rossiter, B. Yap, A. Conn. Biomimetic chromatophores for camouflage and soft active surfaces. Bioinspir. Biomim, 7 (3), (2012), 036009.

DOI: 10.1088/1748-3182/7/3/036009

[6] M. Shahinpooor. Biomimetic Robotic Venus flytrap (Dionaea Muscipula Ellis) Made with Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMCs). Bioinspir. Biomim, 6 (4), (2011), 1-11, 046004.

DOI: 10.1088/1748-3182/6/4/046004

[7] R. Vaia, J. Baur. Adaptive Composites. Science, 319 (5862), (2008), 420-1.

[8] S. R White, N. R Sottos, P. H Guebelle, J. S Moore, M. R Kessler, S. R Sriram, E. N Brown, S. Viswanathan. Autonomic healing of polymer composites. Nature, 409, (2001), 794-7.

DOI: 10.1038/35057232

[9] J. D Rule, N. Sottos, S. R White. Effect of microcapsule size on the performance of self-healing polymers. Polymer, 48 (2007), 3520-3529.

DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2007.04.008

[10] M. R Kessler, N. R Sottos, S. R White. Self-healing structural composite materials. Compos. Part A: Appl. S., 34 (8), (2003), 743-753.

DOI: 10.1016/s1359-835x(03)00138-6

[11] A. S Jones, J. D Rule, J. S Moore, N. R Sottos, S. R White. Life extension of self-healing polymers with rapidly growing fatigue cracks. J. R Soc. Interface, 4 (13), (2007), 395-403.

DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2006.0199

[12] B. J Blaiszik, M. M Caruso, D. A McIlroy, J. S Moore, S. R White, N. R Sottos. Microcapsules filled with reactive solutions for self-healing materials. Polymer, 50 (4), (2009), 990-997.

DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2008.12.040

[13] S. A Hayes, W. Zhang, M. Branthwaite, F. R Jones. Self-healing of damage in fibre-reinforced polymer-matrix composites. J. R. Soc. Interface, 4 (13), (2007), 381-387.

DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2006.0209

[14] S. A Hayes, F. R Jones, K. Marshiya, W. Zhang. A self-healing thermosetting composite material. Compos. Part A-Appl. S., 38 (4), (2007), 1116-1120.

DOI: 10.1016/j.compositesa.2006.06.008

[15] E. N Brown, N. R Sottos, S. R White. Fracture Testing of a Self-Healing Polymer Composite. Exp. Mech., 42 (4), (2002), 372-379.

DOI: 10.1007/bf02412141

[16] R. S Trask, H. R Williams, I. Bond. Self-healing polymer composites: mimicking nature to enhance performance. Bioinspir. Biomim, 2 (1), (2007), 1-9.

DOI: 10.1088/1748-3182/2/1/p01

[17] K. S Toohey, N. R Sottos, J. A Lewis, J. S Moore, S. R White. Self-healing materials with microvascular networks. Nature Mater., 6 (8), (2007), 581-585.

DOI: 10.1038/nmat1934

[18] Y. Imai, H. Itoh, K. Naka, Y. Chujo. Thermally reversible IPN Organic-Inorganic polymer hybrids utilizing the Diels-Alder reaction. Macromolecules, 33 (12), (2000), 4343-4346.

DOI: 10.1021/ma991899b

[19] X. Chen, M. A Dam, K. Ono, A. Mal, H. Shen, S. R Nutt, K. Sheran, F. Wudl. A Thermally re-mendable cross-linked polymeric material. Science, 295 (5560), (2002), 1698-1702.

DOI: 10.1126/science.1065879

[20] X. Chen, F. Wudl, A. K Mal, H. Shen, S. N Nutt. New thermally remendable highly cross-linked polymeric materials. Macromolecules, 36 (6), (2003), 1802-1807.

DOI: 10.1021/ma0210675

[21] S. Y Zhang, Q. Xue, D. Wang. Creep effect on dynamic visco-elastic properties of polymer matrix composite. Appl. Compos. Mater., 1 (2), (1994), 125-133.

DOI: 10.1007/bf00567574

[22] H. H Kausch, M. Tirrell. Polymer Interdiffusion. Annu. Rev. Mater. Sci., 19, (1989), 341-377.

DOI: 10.1146/annurev.ms.19.080189.002013

[23] R. P Wool in: Polymer interfaces: Structure and strength, New York, Hanser Gardner Press, (1995).

[24] R. P Wool, K. M O'Connor. Time dependence of crack healing. Polymer Letters, 20 (1), (1982), 7-16.

[25] M. Ribeiro, J.P. E Grolier. Temperature modulated DSC for the investigation of polymer materials: a brief account of recent studies. J. Therm. Anal. Calorim., 57 (1), (1999), 253-263.

[26] M. Song. Modulated differential scanning calorimetry observation of physical ageing in polymers. J. Therm. Anal. Calorim., 63 (3), (2000), 699-707.

[27] B. Wunderlinch in: Thermal analysis, Boston, Academic Press, (1990).

[28] T. A Plaisted, S. Nemat-Nasser. Quantitative evaluation of fracture, healing and re-healing of a reversible cross-linked polymer. Acta Mater., 55 (17), (2007), 5684-5696.

DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2007.06.019

[29] T. A Plaisted, A. V Amirkhizi, S. Nemat-Nasser. Compression-induced axial crack propagation in DCDC polymer samples: experiments and modelling. Int. J. Fracture, 141 (3-4), (2006), 447-457.

DOI: 10.1007/s10704-006-9006-9

[30] F. Ghezzo, R. D Smith, N. T Starr, T. Perram, A. F Starr, K. T Darlington, R. K Baldwin, S. J Oldenburg. Development and characterization of healable carbon fiber composites with a reversibly cross linked polymer. J. Comp. Mater., 44 (13), (2010).

DOI: 10.1177/0021998310363165

[31] J. S Park, T. Darlington, A. F Starr, K. Takahashi, J. Riendeau, H. T Hahn. Multiple healing effect of thermally activated self-healing composites based on Diels-Alder reaction. Compos. Sci. Technol., 70 (15), (2010), 2154-2159.

DOI: 10.1016/j.compscitech.2010.08.017

[32] S. K Mazumdar in: Composite manufacturing, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, (2002).

[33] F. Ghezzo, T. Starr, T. Perram, T. K Darlington, A. F Starr, D. R Smith: 17th International Conference on Composite Materials, ICCM-17, Edinburgh, (2009).

[34] A. V Bronnikov. Theory of quantitative phase-contrast computed tomography. J. Optical Soc. America, 19 (3), (2002), 472-480.

DOI: 10.1364/josaa.19.000472

[35] M. A Anastasio, D. Shi, F. De Carlo, X. Pan. Analytic image reconstruction in local phase-contast tomography. Phys. Med. Biol., 49 (1), (2004), 121-144.

DOI: 10.1088/0031-9155/49/1/009

[36] P. Cloetens, W. Ludwig, E. Boller, L. Helfen, L. Salvo, R. Mache, M. Schlenker. Quantitative phase contrast tomography using coherent synchrotron radiation. Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 4503, (2002), 82-91.

DOI: 10.1117/12.452867

[37] J. S Park, K. Takahashi, Z. Guo, Y. Wang, E. Bolanos, C. Hamann-Schaffner, E. Murphy, F. Wudl, T. Hahn. Towards development of a self-healing composite using a mendable polymer and resistive heating J. Comp. Mater., 42 (26), (2008), 2869-2881.

DOI: 10.1177/0021998308097280

[38] J. S Park, H. S Kim, H. T Hahn. Healing behaviour of a matrix crack on a carbon fiber/mendomer composite. Compos. Sci. Technol., 69 (7-8), (2009), 1082-1087.

DOI: 10.1016/j.compscitech.2009.01.031

[39] T. Yin, M. Z Rong, M. Q Zhang, J. Q Zhao. Durability of self-healing woven glass fibre epoxy composites, International Conference on Multifunctional Materials and Structures (MFMS 08), 28-31 July, Hong Kong, (2008).

[40] E. B Murphy, E. Bolanos, C. Schaffner-Hamann, F. Wudl, S. R Nutt, M. L Auad. Synthesis and Characterisation of a single-component thermally remendable polymer network: Staudinger and Stille revisited. Macromolecules, 41 (14), (2008), 5203-5209.

DOI: 10.1021/ma800432g