Autonomic Self-Repairing Glassy Materials

A new process that enables glassy materials to self-repair from mechanical damage is presented in this paper. Contrary to intrinsic self-healing, which involves overheating to enable crack healing by glass softening, this process is based on an extrinsic effect produced by vanadium boride (VB) particles dispersed within the glass matrix. Self-repair is obtained through the oxidation of VB particles, and thus without the need to increase the operating temperature. The VB healing agent is selected for its capacity to oxidize at a lower temperature than the softening point of the glass. Thermogravimetric analyses indeed show that VB oxidation is rapid and occurs below the glass transition temperature. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy indicates that VB is oxidized into V(2)O(5) and B(2)O(3), which enable the local formation of glass. The autonomic self-healing effect is demonstrated by an in situ experiment visualized using an environmental scanning electron microscope. It is shown that a crack could be healed by the VB oxidation products.