Room-temperature self-healing glassy polymer

我的研究重点是开发室温自修复玻璃状聚合物。2018年，我们报告了聚（醚-硫脲）TUEG 3作为第一种室温自愈合玻璃状聚合物的突破性发现（Yanagisawa等人，Science 2018，357，72）。这种聚合物具有大量的非线性锯齿形阵列的H-键合硫脲单元，使其非结晶，但在很宽的温度范围内无定形。值得注意的是，它甚至在12 °C的低温下也表现出自愈合行为，这明显低于其27 °C的玻璃化转变温度（Tg）。虽然最近也有一些关于其他室温自愈合玻璃态聚合物的报道，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合玻璃状聚合物，其重复单体单元不仅由硫脲基团组成，而且还由二硫化物基团组成，可以可逆地裂解，为聚合物提供动态愈合性能。总体而言，我的研究有助于自我发展的领域愈合材料，并开辟了新的可能性，为先进的聚合物材料的发展，增强机械性能和延长功能寿命。

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.