The
development of adhesives with superior optical and mechanical
performance, solvent resistance, and reworkability is gaining increasing
attention in recent years. However, traditional materials do not possess
reprocessability and healing characteristics for sustainable development.
Here, a superior dynamic polythiourethane (PTU) adhesive with high
reprocessability was developed by introducing covalent adaptable networks
(CANs). Specifically, dynamic thiocarbamate bonds (TCB) were used
to prepare PTU CANs, which showed dramatically enhanced malleability
and recyclability. The Young’s modulus of the material was
2.0 GPa and the tensile strength was 62.7 MPa. The reprocessing temperature
of CANs was reduced to 80 °C while more than 90% of their mechanical
properties were retained, even after being reprocessed several times.
Moreover, the highly transparent and water-resistant PTU CANs featured
an excellent bonding property and reworkability for various materials
including glass, with a lap shear strength of 2.9 MPa, metal (5.1
MPa), and wood (6.3 MPa), compared with commercially available adhesives.
Additionally, carbon fiber-reinforced composites constructed with
PTU CANs were capable of being fully recycled and reused. Importantly,
laminated glass with a toughened PTU–PU elastomer interface
exhibited an outstanding impact fatigue-resistance behavior, sustaining
thousands of impacts. These features demonstrate that PTU CANs show
great potential as sustainable materials.
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