title: Modified rheokinetic technique to enhance the understanding of microcapsule-based self-healing polymers.
abstract: A modified rheokinetic technique was developed to monitor the polymerization of healing monomers in a microcapsule-based, self-healing mimicking environment. Using this modified technique, monomers active toward ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) were either identified or disregarded as candidates for incorporation in self-healing polymers. The effect of initiator loading on the quality and speed of healing was also studied. It was observed that self-healing polymers have upper and lower temperature limits between which the healing mechanism performs at optimal levels. Also, a study of the quality of healing cracks of different thicknesses was performed, and it was discovered that above a critical crack thickness value, the quality of self-healing diminishes substantially; reasons for this phenomenon are discussed in detail.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Mauldin
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leonard
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Earl
authors.forename: Jong Keun
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Kessler