Self-Healing of Polymers via Synchronous Covalent Bond Fission/Radical Recombination

Abstract

The present paper is devoted to preparation of intrinsic self-healing polymeric materials used for structural applications. The authors introduced a novel healing chemistry based on dynamically reversible C–ON bonds, which imitates natural healing in living bodies without affecting their operations. To verify its feasibility, alkoxyamine moieties served as intermolecular links in polystyrene. Upon heating, covalent bond fission and radical recombination synchronously took place among alkoxyamine moieties. Cracked parts were thus reconnected repeatedly, without losing integrity and load bearing ability of the material even above Tg.