Development of branched aromatic maleimides as components of self-healing binders for polymer composites

Various modifications of epoxy resins with maleimides and polyimide fragments results in the formation of heat-resistant materials with excellent mechanical and electrical properties together with high chemical, corrosion, and radiation resistance. Such materials can be used in the aerospace industry, electronics, instrument making, and other industries. The ability of some epoxy-maleimide resins to react with furanic groups through thermo-reversible Diels-Alder reaction open a new area in composite material science - self-healing binders. Selfhealing materials can restore their structure and mechanical properties after a damage that results in an increase of the service life several times and, therefore, reduce their cost. In this paper, maleimides were modified by diglycidyl ethers to obtain not previously described polyethers, capable of self-healing of mechanical properties after damage. All compounds were characterized by ¹H NMR. (paper)