(32a) Dual-Responsive Microgels for Morphological and Functional Repair of Nonwovens

Fabric repair has been based on functionalizing self-healing elements in the fiber matrix to initiate repair in the event of damage. Most of the current work discusses repair at the micro-scale (µm) with a limited number of technologies repairing damages in the meso- (µm – mm) and macro-scale (> mm). As a new paradigm in fabric repair, we propose and demonstrate a dual-responsive microgel colloidal suspension as a substrate-agnostic repair method for morphological and functional repair of nonwoven fibermats (NWFs). The formulation comprises of magneto-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (PNIPAm-co-AA) microgels acting as “bricks” and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-N-4-benzoylphenyl acrylamide) (PNIPAm-co-BPAm) serving as photo-cross-linkable “mortar”. We compare the efficiency of the magnetic-controlled repair with repair using non-magnetic photo-cross-linkable microgels. The spatially controlled application and repair are rapid, require a minimal volume of material to repair and, efficiently recover the morphology, permeability, tensile modulus of damaged polypropylene, and polybutylene terephthalate NWFs.