Repulsive segregation of fluoroalkyl side chains turns a cohesive polymer into a mechanically tough, ultrafast self-healable, nonsticky elastomer.

ABSTRACT: Dynamic crosslinking of flexible polymer chains via attractive and reversible interactions is widely employed to obtain autonomously self-healable elastomers. However, this design leads to a trade-off relationship between the strength and self-healing speed of the material, i.e., strong crosslinks provide a mechanically strong elastomer with slow self-healing property. To address this issue, we report an "inversion" concept, in which attractive poly(ethyl acrylate-random-methyl acrylate) chains are dynamically crosslinked via repulsively segregated fluoroalkyl side chains attached along the main chain. The resulting elastomer self-heals rapidly (> 90% within 15 min) via weak but abundant van der Waals interactions among matrix polymers, while the dynamic crosslinking provides high fracture

SUBMITTER: Miwa Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9314360 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature