Exploring a naturally tailored small molecule for stretchable, self-healing, and adhesive supramolecular polymers

Polymeric materials with integrated functionalities are required to match their ever-expanding practical applications, but there is always a trade-off between complex material performances and synthetic simplification. A simple and effective synthesis route is reported to transform a small molecule...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science advances 2018-07, Vol.4 (7), p.eaat8192-eaat8192
Main Authors: Zhang, Qi, Shi, Chen-Yu, Qu, Da-Hui, Long, Yi-Tao, Feringa, Ben L, Tian, He
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Materials Science
SciAdv r-articles
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Polymeric materials with integrated functionalities are required to match their ever-expanding practical applications, but there is always a trade-off between complex material performances and synthetic simplification. A simple and effective synthesis route is reported to transform a small molecule of biological origin, thioctic acid, into a high-performance supramolecular polymeric material, which combines processability, ultrahigh stretchability, rapid self-healing ability, and reusable adhesivity to surfaces. The proposed one-step preparation process of this material involves the mixing of three commercially available feedstocks at mild temperature without any external solvent and a subsequent cooling process that resulted in a dynamic, high-density, and dry supramolecular polymeric network cross-linked by three different types of dynamic chemical bonds, whose cooperative effects in the network enable high performance of this supramolecular polymeric material.
ISSN:2375-2548
2375-2548
DOI:10.1126/sciadv.aat8192