Reprocessable, Reworkable, and Mechanochromic Polyhexahydrotriazine Thermoset with Multiple Stimulus Responsiveness

A Heat-Resistant Polymer Based on the Reversible Change in Polymer Skeleton Structure for Self-Anticounterfeiting

Heat-resistant polymer materials have been widely used in many fields, but their anticounterfeit is still a significant challenge. This work has successfully constructed a heat-resistant polymer material that can achieve self-anticounterfeit. In response to changes in the external environment, the color of polymer changes from yellow-green to red reversibly, which is due to the fact that polymer material's backbone undergoes isomerization. Therefore, this high-performance polymer material can not only be used in a high-temperature environment for a long time but also achieve its anticounterfeit and be used in advanced security applications.

Hemiaminal dynamic covalent networks with rapid stress relaxation, reprocessability and degradability endowed by the synergy of disulfide and hemiaminal bonds

This work proposes a strategy to address the challenge of achieving rapid reprocessability of vitrimers at mild temperatures by introducing dynamic disulfide and hemiaminal bonds into hemiaminal dynamic covalent networks (HDCNs). The resulting HDCNs, termed HDCNs-DTDA, were prepared through a facile polycondensation between formaldehyde and 4,4'-dithiodianiline. The dual dynamic bond system in the HDCNs-DTDA enables rapid stress relaxation under mild temperature (65 °C for 54 s), which is significantly faster than that observed in HDCNs containing a single dynamic bond (HDCNs-DDM). The HDCNs-DTDA also exhibit a glass transition temperature of 96 °C, excellent solvent resistance and high recovery rates (97%) of tensile strength after reprocessing. In addition, HDCNs-DTDA can be easily degraded in HCl and thiol solutions at room temperature to enable chemical recyclability. Finally, HDCNs-DTDA demonstrates fast shape memory behaviors using thermal stimulation.

Self-Healing of Polymers and Polymer Composites

This review is devoted to the description of methods for the self-healing of polymers, polymer composites, and coatings. The self-healing of damages that occur during the operation of the corresponding structures makes it possible to extend the service life of the latter, and in this case, the problem of saving non-renewable resources is simultaneously solved. Two strategies are considered: (a) creating reversible crosslinks in the thermoplastic and (b) introducing a healing agent into cracks. Bond exchange reactions in network polymers (a) proceed as a dissociative process, in which crosslinks are split into their constituent reactive fragments with subsequent regeneration, or as an associative process, the limiting stage of which is the interaction of the reactive end group and the crosslink. The latter process is implemented in vitrimers. Strategy (b) is associated with the use of containers (hollow glass fibers, capsules, microvessels) that burst under the action of a crack. Particular attention is paid to self-healing processes in metallopolymer systems.

Self-Healable Covalently Adaptable Networks Based on Disulfide Exchange

Introducing dynamic covalent bonding into thermoset polymers has received considerable attention because they can repair or recover when damaged, thereby minimizing waste and extending the service life of thermoset polymers. However, most of the yielded dynamic covalent bonds require an extra catalyst, high temperature and high-pressure conditions to trigger their self-healing properties. Herein, we report on a catalyst-free bis-dynamic covalent polymer network containing vinylogous urethane and disulfide bonds. It is revealed that the introduction of disulfide bonds significantly reduces the activation energy (reduced from 94 kJ/mol to 51 kJ/mol) of the polymer system for exchanging and promotes the self-healing efficiency (with a high efficiency of 86.92% after being heated at 100 °C for 20 h) of the material. More importantly, the mechanical properties of the healed materials are comparable to those of the initial ones due to the special bis-dynamic covalent polymer network. These results suggest that the bis-dynamic covalent polymer network made of disulfide and inter-vinyl ester bonds opens a new strategy for developing high-performance vitrimer polymers.

Recyclable High-Performance Epoxy-Anhydride Resins with DMP-30 as the Catalyst of Transesterification Reactions

Epoxy-anhydride resins are widely used in engineering fields due to their excellent performance. However, the insolubility and infusibility make the recycling of epoxy resins challenging. The development of degradable epoxy resins with stable covalent networks provides an efficient solution to the recycling of thermosets. In this paper, 2,4,6-tris(dimethylaminomethyl)phenol (DMP-30) is incorporated into the epoxy-glutaric anhydride (GA) system to prepare high-performance epoxy resins that can be recycled below 200 °C at ordinary pressure via ethylene glycol (EG) participated transesterification. The tertiary amine groups in DMP-30 can catalyze the curing reaction of epoxy and anhydride, as well as the transesterification between ester bonds and alcoholic hydroxyl groups. Compared with early recyclable anhydride-cured epoxy resins, the preparation and recycling of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA)/GA/DMP-30 systems do not need any special catalysts such as TBD, Zn(Ac)2, etc., which are usually expensive, toxic, and have poor compatibility with other compounds. The resulting resins have glass transition temperatures and strengths similar to those of conventional epoxy resins. The influences of GA content, DMP-30 content, and temperature on the dissolution rate were studied. The decomposed epoxy oligomer (DEO) is further used as a reaction ingredient to prepare new resins. It is found that the DEO can improve the toughness of epoxy resins significantly. This work provides a simple method to prepare readily recyclable epoxy resins, which is of low-cost and easy to implement.