Abstract
As a next step in self-healing materials, it is desired that the repeatable self-healing function would be realized. In this case, a biomimetic approach, where the functions or structures of living tissues should be mimicked, might be effective. In this study, we had devised the application of stress-activated micro-channels, which can be opened and closed by applied stresses, on microcapsules, by mimicking the ion-channels on cellular membrane. We tried to apply small holes to microcapsule membrane utilizing the removal of “islands” from the “sea-island structure” composed of membrane material and second phase, as the first step to realize stress-activated micro-channels. Here, microcapsules were prepared using the coacervation method, and glass beads were used as “islands”. Then, we tried to optimize the membrane thickness of microcapsules and the size of holes on the microcapsule membrane applied by the dropout of glass beads, through the in-situ observation of leakage and enclosure behavior of microcapsules with holes using a simplified compression device. As results, it was suggested that both the membrane thickness and hole diameter of 10 [μm] are suitable to apply stress-activated channels to microcapsules. Finally, we demonstrated the function as microcapsules with stress-activated channels by the in-situ observation of the tensile leakage and enclosure behavior of microcapsules embedded in a resin strip specimen.
