Evaluation of healing and damage recovery in intrinsic self-healing cotton and synthetic fabric

In this work the self-healing coating of high ammonia natural rubber latex (HANRL) consisting of dynamic reversible metal thiolate ionic network was successfully developed. The objective of this investigation was to compare the healing performance of woven, non-woven, hydrophobic cotton and polypropylene (PP) fabric coated with self-healing HANRL. The self-healing woven cotton revealed excellent results based on mechanical performance, healing performance, morphological properties and breathability of fabric. Meanwhile, the healing performance of woven cotton based on mechanical strength; tensile strength, elongation at break, tear strength and puncture strength were 93.5%, 89%, 93% and 98% respectively compared to other fabrics. These results were supported by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), as the HANRL coating has properly wetted and deposited on the woven cotton. The air permeability of cotton fabric was found to reach higher permeance compared to synthetic PP fabric. Therefore, self-healing cotton fabric is expected to benefit from this technology in a novel manner.