Optically healable supramolecular polymers
Optically healable supramolecular polymers
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DOI：
10.1038/nature09963
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发表时间：
2011-04-21
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Weder, Christoph
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Burnworth, Mark;Tang, Liming;Weder, Christoph
具有在遭受损坏后自我修复能力的聚合物可以延长许多应用中使用的材料的寿命（1）。大多数可修复材料的方法需要加热受损区域（2-4）。在这里，我们提出了金属超分子聚合物，可以通过暴露于光修补。它们由遥爪、橡胶状、低分子量聚合物组成，其具有通过金属离子结合非共价连接的配体端基。在暴露于紫外光时，金属配体基序被电子激发，吸收的能量被转化为热量。这导致金属配体基序的暂时脱离以及伴随的聚合物分子量和粘度的可逆降低（5），从而允许快速和有效的缺陷愈合。光可以局部应用于损伤部位，因此原则上物体可以在负载下愈合。我们预计，这种基于超分子聚合物和光热转换步骤的可愈合材料的方法可以应用于使用不同化学物质的各种超分子材料。
Polymers with the ability to repair themselves after sustaining damage could extend the lifetimes of materials used in many applications(1). Most approaches to healable materials require heating the damaged area(2-4). Here we present metallosupramolecular polymers that can be mended through exposure to light. They consist of telechelic, rubbery, low-molecular-mass polymers with ligand end groups that are non-covalently linked through metal-ion binding. On exposure to ultraviolet light, the metal-ligand motifs are electronically excited and the absorbed energy is converted into heat. This causes temporary disengagement of the metal-ligand motifs and a concomitant reversible decrease in the polymers' molecular mass and viscosity(5), thereby allowing quick and efficient defect healing. Light can be applied locally to a damage site, so objects can in principle be healed under load. We anticipate that this approach to healable materials, based on supramolecular polymers and a light-heat conversion step, can be applied to a wide range of supramolecular materials that use different chemistries.