Natural Polyphenol-Inspired Polymer towards Multifunction and High Performance

Abstract

Multifunctional and high-performance polymers have long been the pursuit of materials scientists, but are seldom reported or require complex preparation. Herein, inspired by the multiple functions of natural polyphenols, we report a synthetic polymer called PIP (polyphenol-inspired polymer) with facile bulk preparation process aiming for multiple application scenarios. With tunable polyphenol content from 1 to 40 mol%, PIP exhibited adjustable performances. At low polyphenol content, PIP possesses excellent full-band ultraviolet shielding performance and 1.9-fold mechanical strength compared with a typical commercial competitor, due to the abundant hydrogen bonds. Based on the radical-scavenging and char-forming ability of polyphenols, PIP realizes high fire safety at high polyphenol content. Notably, PIP can be easily processed into films and fibers, enabling its wide potential application fields. In sight of these findings, this work provides a new strategy for the design and synthesis of high-performance and multifunctional polymers with broader applications.