A thermoreversible supramolecular polyurethane with excellent healing ability at 45 °C

Feula, A., Pethybridge, A., Giannakopoulos, I., Tang, X., Chippindale, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5918-8701, Siviour, C.R., Buckley, C.P., Hamley, I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4549-0926 and Hayes, W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0047-2991 (2015) A thermoreversible supramolecular polyurethane with excellent healing ability at 45 °C. Macromolecules, 48 (17). pp. 6132-6141. ISSN 0024-9297 doi: 10.1021/acs.macromol.5b01162

Abstract/Summary

We report the synthesis and characterization of a healable, elastomeric shape recovery supramolecular polyurethane whose properties result from self-complementary π−π stacking and hydrogen bonding interactions plus phase separation. ESEM analysis and photographic images have revealed that this material can heal at 45 °C in 15 min to recover the mechanical properties of the pristine material with healing efficiencies >99%. This supramolecular polyurethane is also able to recover an applied strain of 25% within 5 min of release of the load.