An intelligent polymer composite with self-lubricating and self-healing functionalities

Abstract

An intelligent polymer composite with self-lubricating and self-healing functionalities is reported. The high strength intrinsic self-healing material that integrated hydrogen bond interactions into covalently linked networks was used as the matrix and the surface functionalized poly-alpha-olefin oil-containing microcapsules acted as lubricant fillers, which integrated the advantages of intrinsic self-healing and external self-lubricating strategies to realize organic combination of lubrication and healing functions in one system. The tensile and compressive strengths of the bifunctional composite can reach 59 MPa and 104 MPa, while the coefficient of friction (COF) and wear rate can reduce to 0.032 and 10−8 mm3/Nm. Besides, the bifunctional composite exhibited an excellent self-healing ability of scratch and the volume self-healing efficiency of 78% was achieved at 100 °C for 3 h. The developed high strength polymer material with self-lubricating and self-healing functionalities is highly expected for engineering applications.