Effect of the dispersion of self-healing microcapsules on tensile properties of microcapsules filled composites

In order to improve the dispersion of ethylidene-2-norbornene(ENB) based self–healing microcapsules in the epoxy,KH560 coupling agent was chosen to modify the surface of ENB microcapsules.The dispersion of KH560-ENB microcapsules and their influence on tensile property of KH560-ENB/Epoxy composites were studied.The results show that,the tensile fracture strength,tensile modulus and elongation at break of ENB/Epoxy composites,decrease when the mass ratio of ENB microcapsules to epoxy increases to no more than 5%.The falling slopes of those three tensile properties vary with pre-curing temperature for ENB/Epoxy composites.The linear coefficient of cumulative distribution of KH560-ENB microcapsule in epoxy is 0.9945,nearly to 1,showing better dispersion.Furthermore,tensile fracture strength and tensile modulus of KH560-ENB/Epoxy composites increase by 19.1% and 6.6%,respectively.According to SEM observations of KH560-ENB/Epoxy cross section,the interface between KH560-ENB microcapsules and epoxy is well bonded.