Towards commercialization of self-healing technology in epoxy coatings

Abstract

This work is focused on developing viable self-healing coatings especially considering the viability of the coating in a commercial context. With this in mind, finding low cost healing agents, with satisfactory healing and mechanical properties as well as adapting the healing system for use in coatings was required. Seven potential healing agents were evaluated and an air-drying triglyceride (linseed oil) was identified as the candidate healing agent. Different encapsulation techniques were evaluated and urea-formaldehyde microcapsules were chosen as the candidate encapsulation technique. Self-healing coatings were fabricated using ureaformaldehyde encapsulated linseed oil. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to evaluate the mechanical performance, corrosion resistance, and self-healing performance of the coatings.