These studies focus on the development of a new generation of polymer networks that exhibit simultaneous self-healing and tunable color changes resulting from mechanical damage. Newly detected stimuli-responsive (TSR) transitions in the context of polymer glass transition (Tg) temperatures were utilized in designing and synthesis of materials which upon exposure to electromagnetic radiation return to their original state, including original colorless appearance. The color changes resulting from damage can be tuned by electron withdrawing and donating substituents as well as the polarity of the networks. The driving force is the reversible ring opening and closure of copolymerized spiropyran sub-network components that can be built-in into any polymer system. In these studies we focused on acrylate-based copolymers and oxetane-chitosan polyurethane (CHI-OXE-PUR) crosslinked networks.

Stimuli-responsiveness in spatially restricted polymers:  Stimuli-responsive transitions and color-sensitive self-repairing networks

244th National Meeting (2012)

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