Executive Summary : | Overuse cracking in structural laminated composites can cause failures and damage, threatening the integrity of these composites in fighter jets and plane airframes. To address this issue, the introduction of healing capabilities in the thermosetting network used to manufacture laminated composites has gained attention. Dynamic covalent bonding, which involves reversible bonds prepared using various thermally activated groups, is advantageous as it prevents crosslinks from breaking during thermoforming or healing. However, the production cost of 3R (reprocessability, recyclability, reparability) based CFRP can be enhanced by 8 times due to the lack of understanding of dissociation and association issues. To address this issue, aromatic disulfide or imine-based bond grafted highly conductive nanofillers can be introduced between crosslinked epoxy networks to gain the advantage of dynamic associative exchange chemistry in laminated composites. 2D based Mxene nanosheets with altering layers of transition metals and carbon have gained interest due to their superior properties in magnetic properties, electrical conductivity, mechanical properties, alterable surface chemistry, and surface areas. The proposed approach aims to synthesize MXenes from Max phases and graft them with reservisible disulphide-based associative dynamic bond to develop self-healable thermoformable laminated composites. The concept of induction heating will be utilized for superior localized heating for self-healing via reversible disulfide bond grafted MXenes. This project aims to extend the service life of laminated composites without immediate removal or replacement by implementing locally activated heat-induced healing in self-healable dynamic network based nanocomposite laminates. |