Hydrogen‐Bonded Supramolecular Polymer Adhesives: Straightforward Synthesis and Strong Substrate Interaction

Abstract

Abstract High‐performance adhesives are of great interest in view of industrial demand. We herein identify a straightforward synthetic strategy towards universal hydrogen‐bonded (H‐bonded) polymeric adhesives, using a side‐chain barbiturate (Ba) and Hamilton wedge (HW) functionalized copolymer. Starting from a rubbery copolymer containing thiolactone derivatives, Ba and HW moieties are tethered as pendant groups via an efficient one‐pot two‐step amine‐thiol‐bromo conjugation. Hetero‐complementary Ba/HW interactions thus yield H‐bonded supramolecular polymeric networks. In addition to an enhanced polymeric network integrity induced by specific Ba/HW association, the presence of individual Ba or HW moieties enables strong binding to a range of substrates, outstanding compared to commercial glues and reported adhesives.