Supramolecular chemistry is a powerful tool to build complex molecules through non-covalent interactions under high yield, mild reaction conditions. Ionic interactions can be used to couple a wide range of oppositely charged molecules, such as hydrotropes, surfactants, ionomers and polyelectrolytes to build polymers with more complex architectures. The presence of ion pairs in these polymers can result in new physical properties due to the dissociation or aggregation under different environmental conditions. This talk will discuss efforts in our laboratory to prepare elastic polymer networks using ion-pairs as inter-chain crosslinks. Both synthesis efforts by controlled radical polymerization and bulk mechanical characterization by oscillatory and steady shear rheology will be discussed. It will be shown that ion-pair crosslinks yield mechano-responsive elastomers that are stable at low frequency over a wide temperature range, but can be deformed at high strain. This has potential applications in functional elastomers including shape memory and self-healing systems.

Synthesis and characterization of ionically crosslinked polymer networks

249th National Meeting (2015)

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