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Two different technologies produce self-healing polymers. The first comprises materials using encapsulated reactive components which are released when fissures arise and reconstitute the material.
The second approach is to develop materials capable to reforming their initial shape due to the high mobility of the polymer chains. This is precisely the approach which used in the ExpertRepair development. They are hyper-branched polymers with glass transition temperatures below the temperature of use.
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When the material is damaged, the highly mobile branches migrate to repair the site of damage. The healing time depends directly on temperature, so with temperatures far above the glass transition, self-healing can be immediate.
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