
The project team utilized esterification reactions to introduce dynamic chemical bonds between crumb rubber particles, and prepared self-healing crumb rubber modified asphalt. The introduction of dynamic disulfide bonds significantly enhanced the crack-healing capability of crumb rubber modified asphalt on the macro-micro-nano scales. The molecular healing behavior of self-healing crumb rubber-modified asphalt had a linear correlation with the fatigue healing index and fracture healing rate. The faster the movement and entanglement speed of the molecular chains of self-healing crumb rubber-modified asphalt at crack, the stronger its healing capacity for both micro-cracks and macro-cracks. Compared to ordinary crumb rubber modified asphalt, the crumb rubber particles in self-healing crumb rubber modified asphalt exhibit better dispersion. This is attributed to the introduction of dynamic disulfide bonds between crumb rubber particles forming a bridge structure, which enables uniform dispersion of crumb rubber particles in asphalt.
