Volume 142, Issue 23 e56982
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Self-Healing and Recyclable Waterborne Polyurethane With Ultra-High Toughness Based on Dynamic Covalent and Hydrogen Bonds

Ruixue Zhai

Ruixue Zhai

School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun, China

Contribution: Conceptualization (lead), Data curation (lead), Formal analysis (lead), ​Investigation (lead), Methodology (lead), Software (lead), Validation (lead), Writing - original draft (lead)

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Jiaqi Zhang

Jiaqi Zhang

School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun, China

Contribution: ​Investigation (supporting)

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Jiawei Li

Jiawei Li

School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun, China

Contribution: ​Investigation (supporting)

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Chengyu Hong

Chengyu Hong

School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun, China

Contribution: Software (supporting)

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Yiping Xu

Yiping Xu

School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun, China

Contribution: ​Investigation (supporting)

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Qiong Song

Corresponding Author

Qiong Song

School of Biological and Food Engineering, Jilin Engineering Normal University, Changchun, China

Correspondence:

Qiong Song ([email protected])

Chao Zhou ([email protected])

Contribution: Supervision (supporting)

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Chao Zhou

Corresponding Author

Chao Zhou

School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun, China

Correspondence:

Qiong Song ([email protected])

Chao Zhou ([email protected])

Contribution: Resources (supporting), Supervision (supporting), Writing - review & editing (supporting)

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First published: 13 March 2025

Funding: This work was supported by The Science and Technology Department of Jilin Province, No. 20240402051GH.

ABSTRACT

The implementation of self-healing properties in waterborne polyurethane (WPU) materials plays a pivotal role in resource conservation and pollution mitigation. In this work, a strategy was devised to balance the self-healing and mechanical properties of WPU by incorporating bis(hydroxyethyl) disulfide (HEDS), an aliphatic disulfide, as a chain extender. The synthesized WPU constructed a dynamic molecular network through dynamic disulfide bonds (SS). Meanwhile, a physical cross-linked network was formed by dynamic hydrogen bonds from carbamate groups. The synergistic effect of the dual dynamic bonds significantly contributed to the remarkable self-healing capability of WPU. Specifically, the optimal sample (SWPU-15) not only exhibited a tensile strength of 33.42 MPa and toughness of 162.19 MJ/m3 but also achieved a healing efficiency of 81.9% when heated at 80°C for 4 h. Profiting from the abundant dynamic bonds, the SWPU-15 sample could be recycled through hot pressing or solvent treatment, with its tensile strength remaining above 20 MPa after recycling. This study provided a feasible approach for preparing environmentally friendly WPU with excellent performance and demonstrates promising prospects for potential applications.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Data Availability Statement

Research data are not shared.

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