Ionomers as Self Healing Polymers

Abstract

Ionomers are a class of polymers which have up to 20 mol% of ionic species incorporated into the structure of the organic polymer. These ionic species create interactions or aggregates [17, 28], not present in comparable non-ionic polymers that have a profound effect upon the mechanical and physical properties of the polymer. As a result there has been much research in both academia and industry over the last 30 years [4, 22] aimed at increasing the understanding of structure–property relationships in these polymers while also exploring new commercial applications. The self healing phenomenon exhibited by ionomers is a particularly interesting property arising from their unique chemical structure and is the subject of this chapter.