Innovative method for the investigation of self-healing materials

Some newly developed materials have the special ability to repair damage themselves and thereby restore their original properties. For example, scratches in plastic coatings can be healed - they "disappear" as if by magic. Major challenges in research on these so-called self-healing materials are both the detailed analysis of self-healing and the quantification of the healing process.

In our current publication on this innovative field of research in the scientific journal "Polymer Testing" we present a new method for investigating the crack healing of polymers. For this purpose, in cooperation with the research group of Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Frank A. Müller of the Otto Schott Institute for Materials Research (OSIM) at the FSU Jena, cracks were deliberately created in the material by laser cutting or by intender and then analyzed using 3D laser microscopy. A new software tool enables the exact evaluation of the crack and thus also the exact tracking and quantification of the self-healing process.

You can find the complete article hereExternal link.