Self-healing property characterization of reversible thermoset coatings

A self-healing material for coating applications was synthesized using the Diels-Alder (DA) reaction as cross-linking reaction. The built-in reversibility allows local mobility and rearrangements in the polymeric network, which is composed of a furan functionalized epoxy-amine and a bismaleimide. The self-healing material was characterized by physical-chemical means using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and rapid heat-cool differential scanning calorimetry. It has been shown that the reversibility, as a result of a change in DA/retro-DA equilibrium, occurs in a temperature window ranging from ca. 80 to 150 A degrees C. The repeatability of the non-autonomous healing was checked by TG, showing no evaporation or degradation of the components involved in the temperature window of interest.