Facile Strategy for the Biomimetic Heterogeneous Design of Elastomers with Mechanical Robustness, Malleability, and Functionality

Synthesis of thermo-responsive polymer gels composed of star-shaped block copolymers by copper-catalyzed living radical polymerization and click reaction

In recent times, there has been a significant surge in research interest surrounding thermo-responsive water-soluble polyacrylamides, primarily due to their intriguing capability to undergo significant solubility changes in water. These polymers exhibit the remarkable ability to shift from a soluble to an insoluble state in response to temperature variations. The capacity of these polymers to dynamically respond to temperature changes opens up exciting avenues for designing smart materials with tunable properties, amplifying their utility across a spectrum of scientific and technological applications. Researchers have been particularly captivated by the potential applications of thermo-responsive water-soluble polyacrylamides in diverse fields such as drug delivery, gene carriers, tissue engineering, sensors, catalysis, and chromatography separation. This study reports the construction and functionalization of polymer gels consisting of a polymer network of polyacrylamide derivatives with nano-sized structural units. Specifically, thermo-responsive polymer gels were synthesized by combining well-defined star-shaped polymers composed of polyacrylamide derivatives with a multifunctional initiator and linking method through a self-accelerating click reaction. The polymerization system employed a highly living approach, resulting in polymer chains characterized by narrow molecular weight distributions. The method's high functionality facilitated the synthesis of a temperature-responsive block copolymer gel composed of N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPA) and N-ethyl acrylamide (NEAA). The resulting polymer gel, comprising star-shaped block copolymers of NIPA and NEAA, showcases smooth volume changes with temperature jumps.

Mechanically Robust Elastomers Enabled by a Facile Interfacial Interactions-Driven Sacrificial Network

Strength and toughness are usually mutually exclusive for materials. The sacrificial bond strategy is used to address the trade-off between strength and toughness. However, the complex construction process of sacrificial network limits the application of sacrificial network. This work develops a facile strategy to construct an interfacial interactions-driven sacrificial network. The authors' group finds that there are the interfacial interactions between arginines (A) aggregates and molecular chains. Such interfacial interactions result in the mechanical properties of samples having a strong dependence on extension rates, which shows that A aggregates construct a network structure by interfacial interactions. The interfacial interactions between A aggregates and chains improve the strength of samples; while the A aggregate network driven by interfacial interactions preferentially ruptures to dissipate large energy for the improvement of fracture toughness, which can be considered as a sacrificial network. Therefore, their designed elastomers have both high strength and high toughness. This work provides an easier strategy for the construction of sacrificial networks, which can promote the industrial application of sacrificial networks in elastomer materials.

Improvement of mechanical properties of elastic materials by chemical methods

Elastomers such as gels and rubbers play various roles in our lives. Elastomers, which guarantee the safety of airplanes and automobiles and the stability of buildings, are materials that have made the lives of people in the twentieth century extremely convenient. The existence of macromolecules, that is, giant molecules, has been clarified; the development of synthetic macromolecules has progressed; and understanding of elastomers has progressed. By introducing new ideas, it has become possible to obtain tough and hard elastomers, which was difficult under conventional ideas. In this paper, we will explain the development from the classical theory of elastomers to current efforts.

Implantation of Recyclability and Healability into Cross-Linked Commercial Polymers by Applying the Vitrimer Concept

Vitrimers are a new class of cross-linked materials that are capable of network topology alternation through the associative dynamic bond-exchange mechanism, which has recently been invented to solve the problem of conventional cross-linked materials, such as poor recyclability and healability. Thus far, the concept of vitrimers has been applied to various commercial polymers, e.g., polyesters, polylactides, polycarbonates, polydimethylsiloxanes, polydienes, polyurethanes, polyolefins, poly(meth)acrylates, and polystyrenes, by utilizing different compatible bond-exchange reactions. In this review article, the concept of vitrimers is described by clarifying the difference from thermoplastics and supramolecular systems; in addition, the term "associative bond-exchange" in vitrimers is explained by comparison with the "dissociative" term. Several useful functions attained by the vitrimer concept (including recyclability and healability) are demonstrated, and recent molecular designs of vitrimers are classified into groups depending on the types of molecular frameworks. This review specifically focuses on the vitrimer molecular designs with commercial polymer-based frameworks, which provide useful hints for the practical application of the vitrimer concept.