Preparation of two‐component micro‐encapsulated epoxy self‐healing materials based on Pickering emulsion method

Abstract The use of microencapsulated self‐healing materials has been widely applied in many fields, while factors (e.g., the size and content of the microcapsules) markedly affect the mechanical properties of the self‐healing material. In this study, an epoxy‐amine microencapsulated self‐healing material was developed through Pickering emulsion to reduce the effects of the above‐mentioned factors. In this study, the Pickering emulsion was stabilized using two two‐dimensional (2D) materials (i.e., GO and BN), and epoxy microcapsules and amine microcapsules were prepared, with average size of 3.62 and 4.63 μm, respectively. FTIR spectroscopy was used to identify the presence of characteristic PU peaks in the microcapsules, and the bilayer shell microcapsules were well‐prepared. To prepare the binary epoxy resin self‐healing material, two microcapsules were added to the epoxy resin matrix and its mechanical properties were analyzed. Based on the test results, it was suggested that the addition of microcapsules in this study slightly affected the mechanical properties of the material, and the binary self‐healing material still exhibited 89% of the bending stress below the 10 wt% content of the microcapsules. In addition, the tensile stress after repair was 148% of that before. These materials have promising applications in many areas (e.g., engineering technology).