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US-12623437-B2 - Sacrificial bond composites and uses thereof

US12623437B2US 12623437 B2US12623437 B2US 12623437B2US-12623437-B2

Abstract

Monostable adhesive interfaces, for example, a sacrificial bond interface, and self-repairing composite materials are a layered assembly of magnetic materials and deformable adhesive materials such as a non-linear adhesive material and/or a mechanical adhesive. Also there is a method for constructing a sacrificial bond composite material and the sacrificial bond composite material constructed by the method.

Inventors

  • Vanessa Restrepo
  • Oscar Ojeda

Assignees

  • Vanessa Restrepo
  • Oscar Ojeda

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20230622

Claims (11)

  1. 1 . A self-repairing composite material, comprising: a layered assembly of a consensus tetratricopeptide repeat protein and a magnetic material.
  2. 2 . The self-repairing composite of claim 1 , wherein the layered assembly further comprises a mechanical adhesive.
  3. 3 . The self-repairing composite of claim 2 , wherein the mechanical adhesive is a hook-and-loop adhesive.
  4. 4 . The self-repairing composite of claim 1 , wherein the consensus tetratricopeptide repeat protein comprises a sacrificial bond interface.
  5. 5 . The self-healing composite of claim 4 , wherein the sacrificial bond interface is a cross-scale interface comprising the consensus tetratricopeptide repeat protein and a mechanical adhesive.
  6. 6 . The self-healing composite of claim 4 , wherein the sacrificial bond interface is deformable upon application of an external load and self-assembling upon removal thereof.
  7. 7 . A sacrificial bond composite material constructed by a method comprising: preparing a sacrificial bond interface comprising at least a consensus tetratricopeptide repeat protein; and arranging a magnetic material and the sacrificial bond interface into a plurality of alternating layers.
  8. 8 . The sacrificial bond composite material of claim 7 , wherein the sacrificial bond interface is monostable and self-healing.
  9. 9 . The sacrificial bond composite material of claim 7 , wherein the sacrificial bond interface further comprises a mechanical adhesive.
  10. 10 . The sacrificial bond composite material of claim 9 , wherein the mechanical adhesive is a hook-and-loop adhesive.
  11. 11 . The sacrificial bond composite material of claim 9 , wherein the arranging step in the method comprises arranging the magnetic material with the sacrificial bond interface that comprises the consensus tetratricopeptide repeat protein and the mechanical adhesive to construct a cross-scale sacrificial bond composite material.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This patent application claims benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of provisional application U.S. Ser. No. 63/354,423, filed Jun. 22, 2022, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to the fields of sacrificial bond materials and composite materials formed from the same. Specifically, the present invention relates to a cross-scale sacrificial bond composite material. Description of the Related Art Evolution has led to the development of natural materials and structures whose mechanical properties allow them to endure extreme conditions (1-3). Unfortunately, replicating such performance in artificial systems requires the combination of mutually exclusive mechanical properties, such as strength and toughness (4-6). Nacre, for example, is a multilayered brick-and-mortar natural material 3000 times more resistant to fracture than its constituents: microscale platelets of aragonite (95 vol %) bonded by a soft organic adhesive (5 vol %) (7-9). Studies of the mechanism behind the high toughness of nacre demonstrated that its organic adhesive consists of long proteins with sacrificial bonds that break sequentially upon the application of external loads, efficiently dissipating energy (10,11). Moreover, broken sacrificial bonds in nacre can automatically self-repair in the presence of moisture, imparting nacre with self-healing properties (12,13). Self-assembled proteins use ionic, covalent, and metal-ligand bonds as sacrificial bonds to maximize their ability to organize their structure in stable and closely packed configurations (14-17). These bonds significantly increase the amount of energy required to unfold the protein and, since they can be re-formed multiple times, allow self-assembled proteins to not only dissipate significant energy during their unfolding, but also to reconfigure their self-assembled state afterwards (13,18). Several bio-inspired studies have exploited the concept of protein unfolding to improve the performance of composite materials (2,14,19). For example, polyelectrolyte multilayer composites have been demonstrated to be able to break and to reform their electrostatic bonds, increasing the energy required to fail under shear loads and achieving partial self-healing after fractures (20). Similarly, coiled polycarbonate microfibers with internal welded points operating as sacrificial bonds were embedded into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to demonstrate that elastomers are capable of exhibiting high energy dissipation and large inelastic deformation (21). While the use of sacrificial bonds as a bioinspired toughening and self-repairing mechanism is well understood at small scales, reproducing this mechanism at the mesoscale remains a challenge that currently limits the applicability of sacrificial bond composites (22). Mechanical adhesive interfaces, such as hook-and-loop fasteners, have been widely employed in engineering and medical applications benefiting from rapid, dry, flexible, and reusable connections (23-25). As an example, mechanical adhesive interfaces have been incorporated into reconfigurable, nacre-inspired structural composites able to self-heal after enduring severe bidirectional loading forces (26). Additionally, under external loads, the continuous detachment of the hook-and-loop bonds across mechanical adhesive interfaces allows the effective distribution of forces across the interface, promoting energy dissipation (26,27). To recover the strength of the mechanical adhesive interface after its delamination, the interface needs to be re-assembled, so the hook-and-loop bonds can be reformed. The amplitude of the motion required to reassemble mechanical adhesive interfaces currently limits their application in the field of autonomous self-healing composites (28). Thus, there is a need in the art for improved composites with self-healing properties. Specifically, the prior art is deficient in cross-scale composites with self-repairing interfaces based on sacrificial bonds. The present invention fulfills this longstanding need and desire in the art. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to a monostable adhesive interface. The interface comprises a set of adhesive layers each deformable upon application of an external load and self-assembling upon removal thereof. The present invention is further directed to a self-repairing composite material. The self-repairing composite material comprises a layered assembly of at least one deformable adhesive material and a magnetic material. The present invention is directed further to a method for constructing a sacrificial bond composite material. In this method, a sacrificial bond interface is prepared and a magnetic material and the sacrificial bond interface are arranged into a plurality of alternating layers. The present invention is directed to a related metho