Self-Healing Non-Catalytic Multifunctional Composite Structure

Areas of research relating to self-healing composites structures have been undertaken by well-known and respected institutions under the auspices of the Department of Defense. Patent literature and public technical communiqué describe their novel engineering approaches using microencapsulated systems that release polymeric healing agents through suitable mechanisms. While these approaches have merit, the choices of polymer materials used in this design are limited. Our unique expertise has allowed us to correctly identify reaction kinetics and manufacturing processes that presently restrict the use of eminently more suitable polymer systems for this application. We propose revolutionary treatments of encapsulant shells and core healing agents. A team of polymer chemists and polymer engineers, coupled with commercial micro-encapsulation experts, will conduct novel monomer, co-monomer and prepolymer syntheses, and introduce polymer engineering processes that will enable the long-awaited employment of compounds which, to date, have not been successfully encapsulated. Our insight into aspects of physical polymer chemistry, chemical synthesis, and polymer engineering principals will allowed us to implement and develop our novel concept to circumvent long-standing challenges. We will prove feasibility and practicality of our approach, and use those results to introduce a new process and new materials to the microencapsulation and composite industries.