Room-temperature self-healing glassy polymer

我的研究重点是开发室温自愈玻璃聚合物。2018年，我们报道了聚醚硫脲TUEG3作为第一个室温自修复玻璃聚合物的突破性发现（Yanagisawa等人，Science 2018, 357, 72）。该聚合物具有大量的h键硫脲单元的非线性之字形阵列，使其在很宽的温度范围内呈现非晶但非晶态。值得注意的是，即使在12°C的低温下，它也表现出自愈行为，显著低于其玻璃化转变温度（Tg） 27°C。这项开创性的工作挑战了机械坚固的聚合物不能在环境温度下自愈的先见之。尽管最近有一些关于其他室温自愈玻璃聚合物的报道，但成功的例子仍然有限。在我的研究中，我开发了一种新的室温自愈玻璃聚合物，它具有重复的单体单元，不仅包括硫脲基团，还包括二硫化物基团，它可以被可逆地切割掉，从而为聚合物提供动态愈合性能。总的来说，我的研究有助于自我修复材料领域的发展，并为开发具有增强机械性能和延长功能寿命的先进聚合物材料开辟了新的可能性。

My research focuses on developing room-temperature self-healing glassy polymers. In 2018, we reported a groundbreaking discovery of poly(ether-thiourea) TUEG3 as the first room-temperature self-healable glassy polymer (Yanagisawa et al., Science 2018, 357, 72). This polymer possesses a large number of nonlinear zigzag arrays of H-bonded thiourea units, rendering it non-crystalline but amorphous over a wide temperature range. Remarkably, it exhibits self-healing behavior even at a low temperature of 12 °C, which is significantly below its glass transition temperature (Tg) of 27 °C.This pioneering work challenged the preconception that mechanically robust polymers cannot self-heal at ambient temperatures. Although there have been some recent reports of other room-temperature self-healable glassy polymers, the successful examples are still limited. In my research, I have developed a new room-temperature self-healable glassy polymer with repeating monomeric units that consist not only of a thiourea group but also a disulfide group, which can be reversibly cleaved off to provide the polymer with dynamic healing properties.Overall, my research contributes to the growing field of self-healing materials and opens up new possibilities for the development of advanced polymer materials with enhanced mechanical properties and extended functional lifetimes.