Crack initiation and crack propagation are the main problems for epoxy resins. In order to solve these problems, crosslinked copolymers based on acrylic acid (AA) or acrylamide (AAm) with N-Isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAm) and TiO2 were synthesized using dispersion radical polymerization by researchers.
The dispersability of nanogel in epoxy resin was investigated by chemical structure, thermal stability, morphology, particle size and surface charges of TiO2 nanogel composites. It is shown that the incorporation of TiO2 nanogel composites based on NIPAm/AA and AA/AAm nanogels into epoxy matrix can improve the self-healing characteristics of damaged epoxy composites even at low contents.