New attitude in polymers - self-healing

Elastomeric polymers are nowadays used in a broad variety of highly demanding applications. Due to alternating loads, microsized cracks may occur in the material, even before its loading- and lifetime-limit. The consequences can be drastic - failure of components often leads to the loss of production, delays, raising costs or facilities and - in rarely cases - personal injuries. Our endeavour is the equipment of such technically relevant elastomers with a self-healing agent. If microcracks occur in the material, this system should be able to prevent further growing and seal parts of the crack or even the complete crack to restore the mechanical properties.