In recent years corrosion-resistant self-healing coatings have witnessed strong growth and their successful laboratory design and synthesis categorises them in the family of smart/multi-functional materials. Among various approaches for achieving self-healing, microcapsule embedment through the material matrix is the main one for self-healing ability in coatings. The present work focuses on optimizing the process parameters for developing microcapsules by in-situ polymerization of linseed oil as core and urea-formaldehyde as shell material. Characteristics of these microcapsules with respect to change in processing parameters such as stirring rate and reaction time were studied by using optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The effectiveness of these microcapsules in coatings was characterized by studying their adhesion, performance, and mechanical properties.
Keywords: epoxy coating; linseed oil; microcapsules; self-healing coatings.