Self‐Healing Rubber Laminates for Puncture‐Proof Tubeless Tyre Construction

ABSTRACT Punctured tyre is a big nuisance and common problem to vehicles' owners, which causes inconvenience, safety hazards, and additional maintenance costs. In this work, a self‐healing rubber tape was fabricated and incorporated into the inner layer of the tyre, which is capable of healing puncture damage. A self‐healing natural rubber (NR) based on reversible metal‐thiolate ionic networks was successfully fabricated. This material has the capability to recover its initial properties at room temperature without any external stimuli. Recycled tyre rubber was added to the self‐healing rubber compound with the aim of improving the self‐sealing properties of the rubber tape. The results revealed that self‐healing rubber tape with 10 phr RD40 showed 100% recovery from puncture damage for nail diameters below 2.5 mm. At bigger nail diameters of 3.4 and 4.0 mm, the healing efficiency decreased to 97%–87%. This promising result opens a path for the development of puncture‐proof self‐healing tyres.