Issue 21, 2020

Chemically induced repair, adhesion, and recycling of polymers made by inverse vulcanization

Abstract

Inverse vulcanization is a copolymerization of elemental sulfur and alkenes that provides unique materials with high sulfur content (typically ≥50% sulfur by mass). These polymers contain a dynamic and reactive polysulfide network that creates many opportunities for processing, assembly, and repair that are not possible with traditional plastics, rubbers and thermosets. In this study, we demonstrate that two surfaces of these sulfur polymers can be chemically joined at room temperature through a phosphine or amine-catalyzed exchange of the S–S bonds in the polymer. When the nucleophile is pyridine or triethylamine, we show that S–S metathesis only occurs at room temperature for a sulfur rank > 2—an important discovery for the design of polymers made by inverse vulcanization. This mechanistic understanding of the S–S metathesis was further supported with small molecule crossover experiments in addition to computational studies. Applications of this chemistry in latent adhesives, additive manufacturing, polymer repair, and recycling are also presented.

Graphical abstract: Chemically induced repair, adhesion, and recycling of polymers made by inverse vulcanization

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
13 Feb 2020
Accepted
14 May 2020
First published
15 May 2020
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2020,11, 5537-5546

Chemically induced repair, adhesion, and recycling of polymers made by inverse vulcanization

S. J. Tonkin, C. T. Gibson, J. A. Campbell, D. A. Lewis, A. Karton, T. Hasell and J. M. Chalker, Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 5537 DOI: 10.1039/D0SC00855A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements