Self-healing polymer materials constructed by macrocycle-based host–guest interactions

Abstract

Self-healing polymers, which can spontaneously recover themselves after being ruptured, result in enhanced lifetimes for materials and open up a fascinating direction in material science. Macrocycle-based host-guest interactions, one of the most crucial non-covalent interactions, play a key role in self-healing material fabrication. This review aims to highlight the very recent and important progress made in the area of self-healing polymer materials by focusing on cyclodextrins (CDs), crown ethers, cucurbit[n]urils (CBs), calix[n]arenes and pillar[n]arenes with special guest groups and tailored structures. In addition, we also propose future research directions and hope that this review can in a way reflect the current situation and future trends in this developing area.

Dynamic supramolecular polymers built from cucurbit[n]urils and viologens

“…This key feature has inter alia opened up exciting opportunities for the development of stimuli‐responsive, self‐healing or self‐adjusting materials. All these aspects have already been covered in many excellent review articles, to which the reader is referred for further information, focusing either on the preparation or on the properties of supramolecular polymers …”

Dual Sulfide–Disulfide Crosslinked Networks with Rapid and Room Temperature Self‐Healability

“…Such increasing attention to the development of novel self-healable materials is attributed to their built-in ability to repair physical damages, effectively preventing such as π-π stacking, [ 6,7 ] ionic interaction, [ 8 ] metal-ion binding, [ 9 ] hydrogen bonding, [ 10 ] host-guest interactions, [ 11 ] and redox. [ 12 ] In contrast, the use of reversible covalent bond formation can provide higher mechanical strength and higher stability for self-healing materials.…”

Intrinsic Self-Healing Polymers Based on Supramolecular Interactions: State of the Art and Future Directions

“…Moreover, the host-guest recognition is responsive to temperature, pH, and competing ions. These properties can be utilized to introduce self-healing behavior in crown ether-based polymers [231]. In 2012, Huang and coworkers presented the first self-healing supramolecular gel with crown ether moieties [247].…”

“…Thus, new supramolecular structures should be investigated in order to improve the material properties (i.e. mechanical and self-healing properties) and eventually enable engineering and medical applications [231]. A summary of the host-guest interactions used is given in Table 3.…”