Use of a Profluorophore for Visualization of the Rupture of Capsules in Self-Healing Coatings

✍ Scribed by Eric T. A. van den Dungen; Ben Loos; Bert Klumperman

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 287 KB
• Volume: 31
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1022-1336
• DOI: 10.1002/marc.200900728

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

An important category of self‐healing materials relies on the release of a healing agent from a capsule upon the occurrence of damage to the material. Visualization of the release of the healing agent is difficult to accomplish. Here we show that a profluorophore can successfully be used to visualize the local release of a healing agent in a self‐healing coating. A tetra‐functional thiol compound encapsulated in nanocapsules or microcapsules is dispersed in a poly(methyl acrylate) film, in which the profluorophore is molecularly dispersed. A strong fluorescence signal is observed when a cut is introduced in the film. This fluorescence provides clear evidence that the capsules rupture locally during the introduction of a cut. In a more general sense, it proves that profluorophores can be very useful in materials science.

magnified image