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SELF HEALING POLYMERS

Polymers and polymer composites have variety of uses in our daily life because of their advantages including light weight, good processibilty , chemical stability in any atmospheric condition, etc. However exposure to harsh environment would easily lead to degradation of polymeric components. The damages deep inside are difficult to be perceived and repair in particular, the material had better to have the self healing. In fact many naturally occurring portion in animals and plants have the ability of self healing, the natural healing in living bodies depends on rapid transportation of repair substances to the injured parts and reconstruction of the tissues. Having been inspired by these findings, continuous effort are now being made to mimic natural material and to integrate self healing capability into polymers an polymer composites. self healing polymers are a new class of smart materials hat have the capability to repair themselves when they are damaged without the need for detection or repair by manual in intervention of any kind.

Self healing polymers are basically classified on the basis of the way they heal.they are mainly classified as:

1.Intrinsic or Non- autonomic healing: - Partially self contained, healing capability is designed into the material , but additional external stimuli such as heat or UV -radiation is required for the healing to occur. 2.Extrinsic or Autonomic healing: - Fully self -contained and requiring no external intervention of any kind. This is obtained by heating agent pre-embedded in polymer matrix.