Issue 110, 2015

Bio-complementary supramolecular polymers with effective self-healing functionality

Abstract

Complementary nucleobase-functionalized polymers, a combination of base-pair interactions and a blend of two different polymers, can be used for efficient construction of supramolecular polymer networks; these materials exhibit tunable mechanical properties, rapid thermo-responsiveness and self-healing behavior making them highly attractive for a wide range of potential applications. Herein, a multi-uracil functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS-U) and adenine end-capped three-arm polycaprolactone oligomer (PCL-A) have been successfully developed and show high complementary ability in both solution and the solid state owing to reversible uracil–adenine (U–A)-induced physical cross-linking. The POSS-U/PCL-A blend system demonstrates that physically crosslinked films can be readily tailored to provide the desired mechanical properties and rapidly reprocessed after damage under mild temperature conditions. Importantly, these films can also spontaneously self-heal at room temperature as an autonomously repairing material, without the need for external intervention. Thus, this new system provides a potential route toward the design and fabrication of next-generation self-healing polymers.

Graphical abstract: Bio-complementary supramolecular polymers with effective self-healing functionality

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 Sep 2015
Accepted
15 Oct 2015
First published
16 Oct 2015

RSC Adv., 2015,5, 90466-90472

Author version available

Bio-complementary supramolecular polymers with effective self-healing functionality

C. Cheng, F. Chang, S. A. Dai, Y. Lin and D. Lee, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 90466 DOI: 10.1039/C5RA19708B

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