Preparation and properties of Joule thermal effect self-healing polyurethane

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were added into the self-healing polyurethane materials as conductive filler, the mass fraction of carbon nanotubes was adjusted, and 1% polyaniline was doped. The conductive self-healing polyurethane composites with different carbon nanotubes content (PU)-1/3/5/8/10 were prepared, and analyzed and tested. The result shows that the permeability threshold value of the composite material is 8wt%, and the comprehensive performance of the composite material PU-8 is the best; the resistance of PU-8 is 1278Ω, PU-8P has a resistance of 1400Ω; using an infrared camera, it can be seen that the material can reach 143.3 °C under the DC current of 0.1A, reaching the temperature condition when the material is repaired; the swelling test shows that the PU-8P equilibrium swelling rate is 177%, the gel content is 52.67%, and there is no dissolution in dimethyl sulfoxide. Solvent stability is better than PU-8;DSC test shows that the glass transition temperature of the soft segment of PU-8P is 43 °C, and the glass transition temperature of the hard segment is − 55 °C, which is not much different from that of PU-8; TG test shows that the epitaxial starting temperature of PU-8P is 365 °C; the observation photo is magnified by a stereo microscope at ten times and the PU-8P sample is cut of in the middle at room temperature, applying a constant voltage of 30 V, the cracks disappeared. The material cracks realized self-healing with electricity, and the repair efficiency reached 20.5%.