Highly Stretchable, Recyclable, and Fast Room Temperature\nSelf-Healable Biobased Elastomers Using Polycondensation

Abstract

The substitution of petroleum-based\nself-healing elastomers with biobased counterparts is crucial to the\nglobal sustainable development of the rubber industry, which highly\ndepends on the ease of the synthesis procedure. Herein, we show that\nhighly stretchable, recyclable, and self-healable biobased elastomers\nwere synthesized via condensation polymerization of succinic acid,\nadipic acid, sebacic acid, and 1,4-butanediol in the presence of a\nsmall amount of glycerol as a curing agent and 3,3′-dithiodipropionic\nacid as a dynamic covalent monomer. The macroscopic properties of\nour elastomers, including thermal, mechanical, stress relaxation,\nand self-healing performance, were finely regulated via microscopic\nchemical and topological structure. As such, a highly stretchable\n(up to ∼1700%), recyclable (almost without degradation of the\nmechanical performance over several repeats), rapid room temperature\nself-healable (in 20 min) biobased vitrimeric elastomer was achieved,\nwhich is the first aliphatic disulfide metathesis assisted self-healing\npolymer achieved at such low temperatures. The ease of the polycondensation\nwith which the elastomers can be readily scaled up points to exciting\nopportunities for sustainable polymers with minimal environmental\nimpact.