The development of polymers that can spontaneously repair themselves after mechanical damage would significantly improve the safety, lifetime, energy efficiency, and environmental impact of manmade materials. Our laboratory has recently succeeded in developing self-healing polymers via either noncovalent or dynamic covalent bonding interactions.  For noncovalent mechanism, we developed multiphase supramolecular thermoplastic elastomers that combine high modulus and toughness with spontaneous healing capability (Nature Chemistry 2012, 4, 467; Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 10561). In contrast to previous self-healing polymers, our systems spontaneously self-heals as a single-component solid material at ambient conditions without the need of any external stimulus, healing agent, plasticizer, or solvent.For using dynamic covalent interactions, my laboratory has recently demonstrated Ru-catalyzed olefin metathesis as a simple, effective method for healing polymers via dynamic exchange of strong carbon-carbon bonds (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 14226). By introducing a very low level of the Grubbs' second-generation Ru metathesis catalyst into cross-linked polybutadiene (PBD) network, the material self-heals effectively at various conditions under moderate pressures. The simplicity and effectiveness of our self-healing approaches make them potentially applicable to a wide range of polymeric materials and nanocomposites.

Self-healing polymer design via noncovalent and dynamic covalent interactions

246th National Meeting (2013)

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