Self-healable elastomers are extremely attractive due to their ability to prolong product lifetime. An additional function that could further expand their applications is strong adhesion force to clean and dusty surfaces. This study reports a series of autonomous self-healable and highly adhesive elastomers (that are fabricated via a simple, efficient, and scalable process. The obtained elastomers exhibit outstanding mechanical properties with elongation at break up to 2102% and toughness of 1.73 MJ m–3. The damaged elastomer can autonomously self-heal with full recovery of functionalities, and the healing process is not affected by the presence of water. The elastomers are found to possess an ultrahigh adhesion force up to 3488 N m-1, greatly outperforming previously reported self-healing adhesive elastomers. Furthermore, the adhesion force of the elastomer is negligibly affected by dust on the surface. Moreover, force-triggered adhesive elastomer is also demonstrated that can be used for prefab component in building constructions.

Autonomous self-healing elastomers with unprecedented adhesion force for sealant applications

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.