Water-Enhanced and Remote Self-Healing Elastomers in Various Harsh Environments

Abstract

The development of underwater remote stimulusresponsive self-healing polymer materials for applications in inaccessible and urgent situations is very challenging because water can readily disturb traditional noncovalent bonds and absorb heat, UV light, IR light, and electromagnetic wave energy at the wave band of micrometers and millimeters. Herein, visible-light-responsive diselenide bonds are employed as the healing moieties to produce a water-enhanced and remote self-healing elastomer triggered by a blue laser, which possesses excellent underwater transmission capability. During healing, the strain at break reaches ∼200% in 5 min and its toughness almost fully recovers within 1 h, which is estimated to be the fastest reported to date for healing silicone elastomers with a healing efficiency above 90%. The remote underwater pipeline sealing is instantly accomplished with the diselenide-containing elastomers by a blue laser 3 m away, thereby providing a direction for future emergent healing applications.

Preparation and characterization of hydrophilic and water‐swellable elastomeric nanocomposites

“…Despite the high network densities, the present samples have exhibited higher water absorption rates compared to those earlier reported for chlorinated polyethylene filled with cross‐linked poly (sodium acrylate) SAP in the presence of poly(methyl methacrylate‐co‐Maleic anhydride) compatibilizers [ 32 ] and PDMS‐based polyuria which uses water for self‐healing. [ 20 ]…”

“…[1,2,4] Therefore, there is an increase rate of interests of application of elastomer-fillers compositions, including; dielectrics, sensors and actuators, [5][6][7][8][9][10] flexible electronics, heat sinks and gaskets, [11][12][13][14] electromagnetic shields, [15] elastomeric quantum dots materials, [16] and many attractive areas. Over the years, water swellable elastomer (WSE) class of polymers have received great attention in academics and industry for several purposes like sealing or expandable materials used in civil constructions for avoiding water leakages in pipes and working joints in concrete, [17][18][19][20] oil and gas drilling fields [19,21,22] and water-responsive and mechanically adaptive sensors [23][24][25][26] etc. As such, a wide range of elastomers have been examined for the water-swellability, some of which include; polychloroprene rubber (CR), polyoligomeric silsoxane (PDMS), acrylic rubbers (AR), natural rubber (NR), ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM), acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR), and polybutadiene rubber.…”

In vivo self-assembled shape-memory polyurethane for minimally invasive delivery and therapy

“…26 It is worth mentioning that the dynamic covalent polymers (dynamers) based on the diselenide bonds are broadly investigated to achieve self-healing. [27][28][29] Moreover, the diselenide is one of the most sensitive reactive oxygen species (ROS)-scavenging moieties compared to the selenoether bond, thioether bond and disulfide bond. 30 ROS have been explored as the pivotal signaling molecule within various physiological inflammatory processes, including adjusting the cell signal transduction and cell behaviors.…”

Dynamic and mechanically robust and ultrafast healable ionogel for nerve fiber-inspired signal transmitter

“…The rapid diselenide metathesis rate under the irradiation of light with a shorter wavelength (i.e., 480 nm) endows materials with fast self-healing ability. 33,34 Despite these progresses, it remains challenging to develop deformable electronics with robust mechanical properties and ultrafast self-healing ability.…”