A Stiff yet Rapidly Self‐Healable Elastomer in Harsh Aqueous Environments

Abstract

Rapid underwater self-healing elastomers with high mechanical strength at ambient temperature are highly desirable for dangerous underwater operations. However, current room temperature self-healing materials have shortcomings, such as low healing strength (below megapascal), long healing time (hours), and decay of healing functions in harsh environments (salty, acidic, and basic solutions), limiting their practical applications. Herein, it is introduced water-stable Debye forces and high-density nano-sized physical crosslinking into one network to achieve a stiff yet rapid self-healing elastomer that can work in harsh aqueous environments. The obtained elastomer possesses a high Young's modulus of 48 MPa (24 times than that of natural elastomer), and it can achieve 90% of maximum mechanical strength healing for 10 s at ambient temperature in all types of harsh aqueous conditions, outperforming three orders of magnitudes in healing speed of reported roomtemperature self-healing elastomers with Young's modulus over 10 MPa. The new stiff yet rapidly healable elastomers have great potential in emergent repair in urgent and dangerous cases.

Versatile Copolymer for Stretchable and Self-healable Liquid-free Ionic Conductive Elastomers

“…There are also dipole–dipole and ion–dipole interactions among the cations, carbonyls, and ether groups. The ICE, therefore, would form a cross-linked structure with π–π aggregates and could not be fully dissolved in organic solvents. However, it should also be noted that the slightly cross-linked feature could be in part due to a chain transfer reaction during the free radical polymerization in the presence of ethylene glycol-based monomers …”

Noncovalent Assembly Enabled Strong yet Tough Materials with Room-Temperature Malleability and Healability

“…Our composite shows an excellent η of 100.04% (Figure b). Compared to self-healing materials on the basis of dynamic supramolecular interactions, the PAA–GAs@LMPs composite achieves higher mechanical strength and toughness with satisfactory self-healing efficiency at room temperature − (Figure c, Table S1).…”

Fully Bio-Based and Supertough PLA Blends via a Novel Interlocking Strategy Combining Strong Dipolar Interactions and Stereocomplexation

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