Novel Smart Insulating Materials Achieving Targeting Self-Healing of Electrical Trees: High Performance, Low Cost, and Eco-Friendliness

Abstract

It remains challenging to promptly inhibit and autonomically heal electrical trees inside insulating dielectrics, which are caused by sustained strong electrical fields and substantially shorten electronic device lifetimes and even cause premature failure of electrical equipment. Therefore, we demonstrate a magnetically targeted ultraviolet (UV)-induced polymerization functional microcapsule (MTUF-MC) to endow insulating materials with physical and electrical dual-damage self-healing capabilities. Specifically, Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ and TiO₂ nanoparticles, which serve as magnetic targets and UV shields (thereby preventing the healing agent from prematurely triggering), constitute a functional microcapsule shell, ensuring a low dopant concentration and excellent self-healing ability of the epoxy composites without affecting the intrinsic performance of the matrix. By exploiting <i>in</i> <i>situ</i> electroluminescence originating from electrical trees, UV-induced polymerization of healing agent is handily triggered without any applying external stimuli to intelligently, contactlessly, and autonomously self-healing electrical trees inside insulating dielectrics.