Promoting healing progress in polymer composites based on Diels‐Alder reaction by constructing silver bridges

Sandwich-Type Self-Healing Sensor with Multilevel for Motion Detection

Real-time detection of various parts of the human body is crucial in medical monitoring and human-machine technology. However, existing self-healing flexible sensing materials are limited in real-life applications due to the weak stability of conductive networks and difficulty in balancing stretchability and self-healing properties. Therefore, the development of wearable flexible sensors with high sensitivity and fast response with self-healing properties is of great interest. In this paper, a novel multilevel self-healing polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) material is proposed for enhanced sensing capabilities. The PDMS was designed to have multiple bonding mechanisms including hydrogen bonding, coordination bonding, disulfide bonding, and local covalent bonding. To further enhance its sensing properties, modified carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were embedded within the PDMS matrix using a solvent etching technique. This created a sandwich-type sensing material with improved stability and sensitivity. This self-healing flexible sensing material (self-healing efficiency = 70.1% at 80 °C and 6 h) has good mechanical properties (stretchability ≈413%, tensile strength ≈0.69 MPa), thermal conductivity, and electrical conductivity. It has ultrahigh sensitivity, which makes it possible to be manufactured as a multifunctional flexible sensor.

Diels–Alder Cycloadditions of Bio-Derived Furans with Maleimides as a Sustainable «Click» Approach towards Molecular, Macromolecular and Hybrid Systems

This mini-review highlights the recent research trends in designing organic or organic-inorganic hybrid molecular, biomolecular and macromolecular systems employing intermolecular Diels–Alder cycloadditions of biobased, furan-containing substrates and maleimide dienophiles. The furan/maleimide Diels–Alder reaction is a well-known process that may proceed with high efficiency under non-catalytic and solvent-free conditions. Due to the simplicity, 100% atom economy and biobased nature of many furanic substrates, this type of [4+2]-cycloaddition may be recognized as a sustainable “click” approach with high potential for application in many fields, such as fine organic synthesis, bioorganic chemistry, material sciences and smart polymers development.

Rationally Constructed Surface Energy and Dynamic Hard Domains Balance Mechanical Strength and Self-Healing Efficiency of Energetic Linear Polymer Materials

Polymeric materials that simultaneously possess excellent mechanical properties and high self-healing ability at room temperature, convenient healing, and facile fabrication are always a huge challenge. Herein, we report on surface-energy-driven self-healing energetic linear polyurethane elastomers (EPU) that were facilely fabricated by two-step methods to acquire high healing efficiency and mechanical properties. By constructing surface energy and dynamic hard domains, energetic linear polyurethane elastomers not only obtained high healing ability and mechanical properties at high or room temperature but also avoid the use of some assisted healing conditions and complex chemical structure design and decrease manufacturing difficulty. Based on the interfacial healing physical model, various trends of surface tension, radius, and depth of the crack bottom were calculated to analyze the healing mechanism. We propose that polyurethane elastomers with low junction density could generate excess surface energy resulting from damage and drive self-healing, and incorporating a small amount of disulfide bonds increases the slightly packed hard phase and decreases the healing energy barrier. This work may offer a novel strategy for improving mechanical tensile and healing ability in the field of self-healing material application.