Preparation and self‐healing properties of epoxy vitrimer materials based on imine bonds

Abstract Vitrimer materials have machinability and stability because of their shape remodeling and self‐healing properties at high temperatures. This article reports the synthesis of epoxy resin using vanillin, p‐aminophenol, and epichlorohydrin as raw materials, and polyetheramine‐400 as a curing agent. To study the effect of free amine on the mechanical and self‐healing properties, two materials with epoxy and amine stoichiometric ratios of 1:1 and 1:1.2 were studied, respectively. The experimental results show that when the molar ratio of epoxy to amine stoichiometric is 1:1.2 (V 1:1.2 ), the tensile strength of vitrimer materials can reach 5.4 MPa and the self‐healing efficiency can reach 99.5% after 6 h of healing at 120°C. When the molar ratio is 1:1 (V 1:1 ), the obtained epoxy material has a higher tensile strength of 9.5 MPa. After 24 h of healing at 120°C, the self‐healing efficiency can reach 83.4%. In addition, epoxy vitrimer materials can be remodeled at 120°C, and the self‐healing and mechanical properties are not influenced after remodeling. This work proposes a novel preparation method for epoxy vitrimer materials, which is beneficial to the development of high‐strength remodelable self‐healing materials.