Fully bio-based thermosetting polyimine vitrimers with excellent adhesion, rapid self-healing, multi-recyclability and antibacterial ability

• Published in: Industrial crops and products 2023-11, Vol.204, p.117288, Article 117288
• Main Authors: Li, Pengsong, Zhang, Jingyi, Ma, Jinyu, Xu, Chang-An, Liang, Xuanjie, Yuan, Teng, Hu, Yang, Yang, Zhuohong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: acetic acid; Adhesion; Antibacterial activity; castor oil; cysteamine; Escherichia coli; feedstocks; Fully bio-based polymers; imines; Multi-recyclability; pollution; Polyimine vitrimers; polymers; research planning; Self-healing; solvents; Staphylococcus aureus; tensile strength; thermal stability; vanillin
• ISSN: 0926-6690; 1872-633X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.indcrop.2023.117288

Traditional thermosetting materials cannot be degraded, recycled, or reprocessed once they attain their end-of-life causing environmental pollution. Using renewable feedstocks to develop covalent adaptive networks (CANs) based on dynamic covalent bonds can make up for the above shortcomings. The design of new polymeric materials using renewable feedstocks is consistent with the concept of sustainability practices. Herein, castor oil, cysteamine and vanillin are used as building blocks to construct fully bio-based thermosetting polyimine vitrimers through imination between cysteamine functionalized castor oil and divanillin. Owing to its unique structure containing flexible chains, aromatic hydrocarbon and imine bonds, polyimine vitrimers integrate fine mechanical properties, good thermal stability, excellent adhesion, rapid self-healing performance, degradability, recyclability and antibacterial ability. Specifically, the tensile strength of 5.21 MPa, lap-shear strength of 6.07 MPa on 304 stainless steels, self-healing within 30 min at 80 °C, and antibacterial rate against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli > 90% are observed for this fully bio-based polyimine vitrimers. Additionally, discarded materials can be recovered multiple times for repeated usage by thermo-compression reprocessing and solvent treatment. The original monomer DV is obtained by degradation under 1 M aqueous acetic acid solution with a recovery rate of 92.7%. Therefore, this work will provide a new research strategy for the application of multifunctional bio-based polymer materials, especially in adhesives. [Display omitted] •A fully bio-based polyimide was prepared from castor oil, vanillin and cysteamine.•Catechol-like units endow the polyimide polymer with excellent adhesion property.•The dynamic imine bond gives the polyimide material multiple recovery properties.•The polyimide material displays the clear antibacterial activity.