Constructing self-healing high-strength elastomer with condensed state microphase separation by solubilization and copolymerization

Self-healing is a fascinating property for materials, but it is still a challenge to simply, effectively and greenly prepare self-healing material. Here, a self-healing elastomer was fabricated by solubilization copolymerization of ethylene glycol methyl ether acrylate (MEA) and N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM). When NIPAM content was 40%, strong condensed state emerged and led to obvious microphase separation, which greatly improved stress to 3.5 MPa at break (asymptotic to 650%). Meantime, because the condensed state was still weak in the copolymer, the dissociation and re-association could occur to improve self-healing performance. The copolymer had about 60% self-healing efficiency after 8h at 100 ?, and the actual stress was 2 MPa at break (asymptotic to 500%). The copolymer with good solubility can be easily recycled and reprocessed. A wrinkled skin-core conductive filament also was pre-pared by wet spinning and stretching coating, which was conductive and stretchable. And the self-healing core can drive conductive PEDOT: PSS shell to re-touch after break.

Automated summary

In this study, a self-healing elastomer was successfully fabricated through solubilization copolymerization, which resulted in strong condensed state and obvious microphase separation, leading to improved stress at break and self-healing performance. Additionally, a wrinkled skin-core conductive filament was prepared, which exhibited both conductivity and stretchability, and the self-healing core enabled re-touching after break.