Synthesis of intrinsic self-healing epoxy resins

The thermally reversible Diels-Alder adducts are attractive building blocks for the design of intrinsic self-healing materials that do not have an additional healing agent but possess the capability to repair the damage through inherent reversibility of bonding into the polymer matrix. We report the development of new thermally responsive polymers for self-healing reversible adhesion. Re-mendable epoxy resins were obtained from the DA coupling of multifunctional furans and maleimide monomers. We prepared a new tri-furan macromonomer which reacted with a bismaleimide counterpart giving rise to a DA network following the reaction progress of the non-linear polycondensation by FTIR. Different combinations of di- and tri-functional furans with maleimide were investigated to polymerize in solution or in bulk. The thermal reversibility of the crosslinked networks were analyzed in detail by differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical analysis. Preliminary studies on the ability of healing of new materials were performed. The relatively large number of DA bonds in the polymers determine satisfactory healing efficiency of the new materials