Chapter 13 - Additive manufacturing of self-healing polymers and composites

Abstract

Self-healing polymers and their composites have been under intensive research in the past decades. Various material systems are designed with extrinsic or intrinsic healing mechanisms. In recent years, there are growing interests to incorporate self-healing polymers with advanced polymer manufacturing techniques to exploit their new potentials and applications. For example, additive manufacturing of such polymers can create self-healing 3D components with highly customized geometry, material distribution, and microstructures, a unique combination that truly mimics materials created by nature (e.g., self-healable human organs). The current progress of self-healable polymers and their composites are first reviewed in this chapter, followed by their various printing techniques. This includes the extrusion-based printing methods, such as direct ink writing and fused deposition modeling, and the photopolymerization-based printing method, such as digital light processing and stereolithography. Finally, this chapter introduces the potential applications of the printed self-healable structures as actuators, sensors, shape-changing structures, and electronic devices.