Fabrication of photothermal responsive dual-chamber microcapsules for self-healing epoxy anticorrosion coatings

Abstract

It has been urgent that timely repair of microdamage generated during long-term service of metal insulation coatings. Hereby, we developed a novel self-healing dual-chamber microcapsule with particle size about 5 μm, in which furfuryl amine modified polystyrene-acrylic acid (PSAF) as shell material and photosensitizer Carbon dots (CDs) as Pickering emulsifier. The synthesized materials were characterized analytically, FTIR and DSC demonstrated the simultaneously existence of healing agent and curing agent in the resultant dual-chamber microcapsule. Experiments also showed microcapsules exhibited satisfying storage stability more than 20 d at room temperature as well as thermogenesis effect that allowing temperature of epoxy composite materials raised to 50 °C in 60s and fractures to be effectively minimized in time. The scratch tensile measurement results demonstrated that epoxy resin composites incorporated with 2 wt% microcapsules exhibited the optimal strength self-healing efficiency, modulus, toughness and anti-fatigue performance. Furthermore, surface characterization and EIS analysis also confirmed the long-lasting healing effect of EP/MC2% complex coating with outstanding corrosion resistance. Therefore, the photothermal responsive dual-chamber microcapsule designed in this work has application as self-healing material especially epoxy anti-corrosion coating.