Covalently cross-linked polymer networks find utility as structural materials across a wide variety of applications where in situ polymerization, dimensional stability, environmental resistance, and permanence are required. Additional chemical functionality can be readily introduced to these networks by incorporating desired functional groups in the monomeric precursors employed for material fabrication; however, once set, the post-polymerization manipulation and modification of these covalently cross-linked networks are, as suggested by their common description as "thermosets", limited. Significant research attention has been devoted towards achieving connectivity rearrangement and adaptability in thermosets owing to the potential for successful implementations to enable stress relaxation and intrinsic healability, yielding tremendous improvements in their longevity and reliability as structural materials. Strategies to impart these properties have focused on incorporating reversible covalent bonds within the network backbone of these otherwise intractable materials; however, the chain mobility required to effect network rearrangement and healing necessitates that the materials be already in a gel or elastomeric state, or that they be heated above their glass transition temperature (Tg). Here, I will address this and other challenges in contemporary covalent adaptable network research, as well as opportunities to broaden their utilization in industrially-relevant fields such as coatings and additive manufacturing.

Challenges, opportunities, and future directions in covalent adaptable networks

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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