Design, Synthesis and Characterization of Vitrimers with Low Topology Freezing Transition Temperature

Abstract

Vitrimers are crosslinked polymeric materials that behave like fluids when heated, regulated by the kinetics of internal covalent bond-exchange that occurs rapidly at or above the topology freezing transition temperature (Tv) of the vitrimer, making these materials readily reprocessable and recyclable. We report two novel multiphase vitrimeric materials prepared by the cross-linking of two polymers, namely poly(triethylene glycol sebacate) and poly(2-hydroxyethyl acrylate), using zinc acetate or tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate as catalysts, which exhibit significantly low Tv temperatures of 39 °C and 29 °C, respectively. The transesterification reactions allow rapid and pronounced stress relaxation at high temperatures, following the Arrhenius law. The lower Tv of these vitrimers could be attributable to the flexible long chains of these polymers and the significant excess of OH moieties present along the main chain of the polymer. The design of such multiphase vitrimers is not only useful for the practical application of vitrimers to reduce plastic waste but could also facilitate further development of functional polymer materials that can be reprocessed at low temperatures.

Self-healable fiber-reinforced vitrimer composites: overview and future prospects

“…Overall, catalyst promoted exchangeable transesterication reactions are more oen reported, [102][103][104][105] whereas, participation of neighbouring groups as well as internal catalysis could be advantageous in terms of catalyst cost and environmental impact, 106,107 thus, requires more attention of researcher for developing sustainable vitrimers.…”

Vitrimer Nanocomposites for Highly Thermal Conducting Materials with Sustainability

“…This bond exchange process proceeds slowly at room temperature, rendering vitrimers with mechanical properties similar to thermosetting resins. However, when the temperature surpasses the topological freezing transition temperature (T v ), the bond exchange reaction accelerates, endowing vitrimers with thermoplastic-like characteristics, including reprocessing, remolding, and recycling [10][11][12].…”

A bibliometric survey of research trends in vitrimer

“…Dynamic covalent bonds based approaches can be a potential platform to design recyclable and self-healable polymer networks [ [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] , [26] , [27] ]. Regardless of the bond exchange mechanism, such systems are known as covalent adaptable networks (CANs), and the subclass of CANs comprising associative dynamic covalent bonds are known as “vitrimer” as reported by Leibler and co-workers [ 1 ].…”