Influence of Morphology on the Healing Mechanism of PCL/Epoxy Blends
Open accessAbstract
Polycaprolactone (PCL) is being researched as a self-healing agent blended with epoxy resins by several reasons: low melting point, differential expansive bleeding (DBE) of PCL, and reaction induced phase separation (RIPS) of PCL/epoxy blends. In this work, PCL/epoxy blends were prepared with different PCL ratios and two different epoxy networks, cured with aliphatic and aromatic amine hardeners. The curing kinetic affects to the blend morphology, varying its critical composition. The self-healing behavior is strongly affected by the blend morphology, reaching the maximum efficiency for co-continuous phases. Blends with dispersed PCL phase into epoxy matrix can also show high self-healing efficiency because of the low PCL domains that act as reservoir of self-healing agent. In this last case, it was confirmed that the most efficient self-healable blends are one whose area occupied by PCL phase is the largest. These blends remain the good thermal and mechanical behavior of epoxy matrix, in contrast to the worsened properties of blends with bicontinuous morphology. In this work, the self-healing mechanism of blends is studied in depth by scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, the influence of the geometry of the initial surface damage is also evaluated, affecting to the measurement of self-healing efficiency.
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In each study, authors observed PCL filled cracks due to thermal expansion, different from composite.
“In each study, the authors observed that the PCL filled the cracks due to its thermal expansion, which is different from that of the composite.”
From Modeling of the Healing Process of Polycaprolactone‐Interleaved Carbon Fiber–Reinforced Composites (2025) · cites this paper as [23]
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- Authors
- Jiménez-Suárez, A., Del Rosario, G., Sánchez-Romate, X. X., & Prolongo, S. G.
- Affiliations
- Area of Materials Science and Engineering, ESCET-University Rey Juan Carlos, c/Tulipán s/n, 28933 Móstoles, Madrid, Spain
- Technological Center Support, University Rey Juan Carlos, c/Tulipán s/n, 28933 Móstoles, Madrid, Spain
- Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Prolongo, Silvia González
- Venue
- Materials
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2020-04-20
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1941
- ISSN
- 1996-1944 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7215671
- OpenAlex
- W3016879757
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 0.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- dx.doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Materials (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de España (MAT2016-78825-C2)
- Comunidad de Madrid (S2018/NMT-4411)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Polymers and Plastics › Polymer composites and self-healing
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Epoxy Resin Curing Processes
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Polymers and Plastics › Polymer crystallization and properties
- Keywords
- polycaprolactone, epoxy resin, self-healing polymers, blend morphology, co-continuous morphology, bicontinuous morphology, reaction-induced phase separation, curing kinetics, amine hardener, self-healing efficiency, polymer blends
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