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Divya Bartaria,
Arpit Bansal,
- Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, United college of Engineering & Research, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India
- Director & Head of Department, Department of surgical, Jeevan Jyoti Mutispeciality Hospital, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India
Abstract
We present a self-healing polymer composite system in which the traditional passive microcapsules are replaced by a dual dynamic covalent vitrimer shell. The shell consists of three interlocked layers, one of which is a brittle silica layer used to fracture at high stresses, and another is a vitrimer network, which employs disulfide metathesis and transesterification chemistries for autonomous healing of sub-critical microcracks. The shell design allows the realization of two distinct self-healing mechanisms. While a sub-critical crack is healed by the dynamic vitrimer network through the exchange of bonds, a critical crack propagates through the shell, rupturing the silica layer and exposing the healing agent to the crack zone. The dynamic vitrimer shell was tuned for optimal healing performance using coarse-grained molecular dynamic simulations. By embedding such a shell design in a model carbon fiber reinforced polymer, we demonstrate that the simultaneous use of two separate healing mechanisms decouples the healing process from the crack propagation rate. We show that the healing efficiency of microcracks can be evaluated by measuring the recovery of fracture toughness, while the burst releasing efficiency of the shell exceeds 90% for impact energies above 1J. Our shell design concept enables a paradigm shift from passive microcapsules to active self-healing units, thus significantly improving the robustness of self-healing composites.
Keywords: Polymers; composites; chemistry; matrix; selfhealing
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Journal of Polymer & Composites
| Volume | 14 | |
| 05 | ||
| Received | 11/09/2026 | |
| Accepted | 08/10/2026 | |
| Published | 26/10/2026 | |
| Publication Time | 45 Days |