Design of self-healable epoxy-amine-ionic liquid thermosets using poly(urea- formaldehyde) microcapsules containing epoxy prepolymer.

[Display omitted] • Design of new Self-healing epoxy composites based on poly(urea- formaldehyde) microcapsules containing epoxy prepolymer. • Phosphonium ionic liquid as initiator for the encapsuled epoxy prepolymer. • Effect of ionic liquids in the curing process of epoxy-amine networks. • Effect of the poly(urea- formaldehyde) microcapsules on the thermal and mechanical performances. Extrinsic self-healing mechanism is an original route for achieving self-healing polymer materials. The use of microencapsulated diepoxized monomer as healing agent for the design of self-healable epoxy-amine networks is thus a promising strategy limiting only by the decomposition temperature of the curing agent. Therefore, this work put forward the idea of a single microcapsule system by using free ionic liquid (IL) as an initiator of the healing agent, which can be applied for epoxy-amine thermosets requiring higher curing temperatures. Thus, the synthesis of epoxy-amine-ionic liquid networks containing microcapsules was firstly investigated. Then, the morphology as well as the physical properties of these networks, i.e. the thermal stability and mechanical performances were also determined. Finally, the self-healing ability was highlighted by using over than 10 wt% of EP@PUF microcapsules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]