Abstract
Dual-functional polymeric system combining shape memory with self-healing properties has attracted increasingly interests of researchers, as both of these properties are intelligent and promising characteristics. Moreover, shape memory polymer that functions at human body temperature (37 °C) are desirable because of their potential applications in biomedical field. Herein, we designed a polymer network with a permanent covalent crosslinking and abundant weak hydrogen bonds. The former introduces elasticity responsible and maintain the permanent shape, and the latter contributes to the temporary shape via network rearrangement. The obtained PDMS-COO-E polymer films exhibit excellent mechanical properties and the capability to efficiently self-heal for 6 h at room temperature. Furthermore, the samples turn from a viscous state into an elastic state at 37 °C. Therefore, this polymer has shape memory effects triggered by body temperature. This unique material will have a wide range of applications in many fields, containing wearable electronics, biomedical devices, and 4D printing.
Highlights
Most natural biomaterials have an intrinsic ability to self-heal upon encountering damages.To mimic the self-healing properties of natural biomaterials and prolong the lifetime of the material in various applications, many synthetic self-healing polymers which can repair the internal or external damages have been developed [1,2,3,4]
The short PDMS-COOH linear chains are crosslinked into a three-dimensional network by poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether (PEGDGE) units (Figure 1a)
The obtained PDMS-COO-E polymer is transparent and the transmittance the polymer is higher than 85% at the wavelength from 425 nm to 700 nm, which indicates that the PEMS-COO-E polymer has the potential applications in the transparent electronic devices (Figures S2 and S3)
Summary
Most natural biomaterials have an intrinsic ability to self-heal upon encountering damages. Wang constructed a polymer network possessing both shape recovery and self-healing properties upon utilizing the cross-linking reaction between poly(vinyl butyral) (PVB) and hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) [34] Both of them demonstrated that traditional materials can exhibit SME as well as self-healing properties after chemical modifications. The PDMS-COO-E polymer films are highly stretchable (strain >500%), can autonomously self-heal at room temperature, and have shape memory effects triggered by body temperature. This unique material will have a wide range of applications in many fields, containing wearable electronics, biomedical devices and 4D printing
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