A facile approach to fabricate room temperature intrinsic self-healing fabrics

Self-healing fabrics have garnered a lot of attention due to their recovering functionality upon damage. This work describes a facile technique for developing a novel self-healing coating with the goal of producing autonomous intrinsic self-healing fabrics that can recover from damage at room temperature without the use of external stimuli. The coating was developed using natural rubber latex (NRL) and consisted of a dynamic reversible metal thiolate ionic network. The formation of the reversible ionic network was assessed by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and zeta potential analysis. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images revealed that the coating impregnated the fibres of the fabric and improved their structural integrity. The morphology of the punctured area revealed that intermolecular diffusion had occurred during the recovery and the sample had completely healed. The results also showed that the tensile strength, tear strength and puncture strength of the fabric achieved 100% healing efficiency when the damaged fabrics were brought into contact with each other and allowed to be healed at room temperature. This technology is expected to open up a new avenue in the textile industry.