Preparation and characterization of microcapsule containing epoxy resin and its self-healing performance of anticorrosion covering material

Abstract

Microencapsulated healing agents that possess adequate strength, long shelf-life, and excellent bonding to the host material are required for self-healing materials. The in situ encapsulation method is demonstrated over an order of magnitude size reduction for the preparation of urea-formaldehyde (UF) capsules filled with a healing agent, a mixture epoxy resin of the epoxy 711 and E-51. Capsules with diameters as small as about 100 μm are achieved under the agitation rate of 800 r min−1. The capsules possess a uniform UF shell wall (4 μm average thickness). By using the analysis of scanning electronic microscope (SEM), thermal analysis (TG-DTA) and FTIR, the characteristics of the microcapsules were investigated respectively. Successful self-healing has been demonstrated for anticorrosion covering materials with microcapsules.