Self-healing of erosion damage in a polymer coating

•Research investigates the solid-particle erosion of two self-healing coatings.•High-viscosity healing agents reduce healing performance.•Single-component reactive healing agents improve performance by nearly 300%.•Solvent-based healing is ineffective for this damage mode.

Self-healing performance of a coating subjected to erosion damage is evaluated in this paper. Two self-healing coating systems, an elastomeric material with a two-part poly(dimethyl siloxane) healing chemistry and an epoxy coating with a one-part isocyanate-based healing chemistry. Coatings were microcapsule-based self-healing materials. Both systems were evaluated in a custom-designed particle erosion system. Results from the mass loss testing indicates that the elastomeric system did not successfully self-heal because of a combination of high viscosity and slow reaction kinetics. The isocyanate-based system did successfully self-heal when compared to a non-healing control. Mass loss was reduced by almost 300% for this material when compared to a microcapsule-filled non-healing coating.