Mechanical Strong, Highly Adhesive, Recyclable and Transparent Supramolecular Silicone Coatings with Easy Water/Oil Sliding

Traditional silicone materials have poor mechanical properties, poor interfacial adhesion and lack the ability to be reprocessed or recycled. Herein, we developed a novel strategy of incorporating dynamic noncovalent bonds (2-amino-4-hydroxy-6-methylpyrimidine (UPy)) into side chain of silicone backbones to construct supramolecular silicone poly(urea-urethane) (SSPu) coatings with excellent mechanical performance, strong interfacial adhesion and multiple time recycling capability. Impressively, the prepared SSPu is endowed with simultaneously enhanced stiffness (272.0 +/- 23.2 MPa) and toughness (8.0 +/- 2.0 MJm(-3)). Besides, SSPu shows strong interfacial adhesion (up to 9.0 +/- 1.3 MPa) to diverse substrate (stainless steel, aluminum, copper, epoxy and glass) with long term stability. Moreover, SSPu exhibits excellent multi-recyclability and reusability without significantly decrease of its performance. In addition to the abovementioned features, the enrichment of siloxane backbones in the surface layer endows SSPu with robust repellency to water/oil. Our strategy provides a powerful route to fabricate a new multifunctional silicone elastomer. It is highly anticipated that our strategy can effectively extend the service life of silicone coating which can be applied in a wide variety of areas including self-cleaning, antifouling.

Automated summary

A novel strategy of incorporating dynamic noncovalent bonds into silicone backbones was developed to construct supramolecular silicone coatings with excellent mechanical performance, strong interfacial adhesion, and multiple time recycling capability.