UV light triggered self-healing of ZnO-Graphene quantum dots-thermoplastic polyurethane composites = UV light triggered self-healing of ZnO-Graphene quantum dots-thermoplastic polyurethane composites

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The need of developing self-healing materials in coatings or paints now dramatically increases because scratches or cracks formed on surface of protecting materials dramatically accelerate corrosion of the substrate. Here, we report UV light induced self-healing composites fabricated with zinc oxide nano particles covered by graphene (ZnO-G) and polyurethane (PU). The composite films were fabricated through a simple mechanical mixing, followed by removing solvent. In order to examine self-healing ability, the films were scratched by blade and irradiated under UV. The change in crack size and shape was monitored using optical microscope before and after UV irradiation. The damaged area was healed in composites after UV irradiation through a photothermal effect whereas there was little change in cracks for pure PU films and the self-healing ability increased as the fraction of ZnO-G increased.