Grant: Engage Grants Program

The development of self-healing materials is considered of great interest, both from a fundamental point of view and for engineering applications (aeronautics, electronics, composites, etc.). Over the past few decades, there has been a huge interest in materials that can self-repair, as this property can increase their lifetime, reduce replacement costs, and improve product safety. Recently, the supporting company MPB Technologies Inc. has demonstrated an innovative autonomous self-healing process, by adding microcapsules containing an ethylidene norbornene (ENB) monomer and a Ruthenium Grubbs Catalyst (RGC) within a polymer matrix. Our proposal seeks funds to address a problem of investigating the performance of an innovative self-healing material composite based on ENB mixed with nanomaterials additive, including carbon nanotubes (CNT) and ceramics nanopowder (SiC, SiN, SiO2), and integrated into suitable matrices for space debris protection. The objective is to provide novel composite materials and methodology suitable for the mitigation of space debris by absorbing the shock of the impact and healing the crater zone. More specifically, we propose a route towards the combination of the known higher mechanical properties of CNTs and ceramics nanopowder with the known fast ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) rate inherent to the ethylidene norbornene (ENB) healing agent, thereby obtaining simultaneously a fast autonomic self repair damper composite with high mechanical properties.