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Dynamic Bonds Mediate π-π Interaction via Phase Locking Effect for Enhanced Heat Resistant Thermoplastic Polyurethane

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Abstract

Stimulus-responsive polymers containing dynamic bonds enable fascinating properties of self-healing, recycling and reprocessing due to enhanced relaxation of polymer chain/network with labile linkages. Here, we study the structure and properties of a new type of thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) with trapped dynamic covalent bonds in the hard-phase domain and report the frustrated relaxation of TPUs containing weak dynamic bond and π-π interaction in hard segments. As detected by rheometry, the aromatic TPUs with alkyl disulfide in the hard segments possess the maximum network relaxation time in contrast to those without dynamic bonds and alicyclic TPUs. In situ FTIR and small-angle scattering results reveal that the alkyl disulfide facilitates stronger intermolecular interaction and more stable micro-phase morphology in π-π interaction based aromatic TPUs. Molecular dynamics simulation for pure hard segments of model molecules verify that the presence of disulfide bonds leads to stronger π-π stacking of aromatic rings due to both enhanced assembling thermodynamics and kinetics. The enhanced π-π packing and micro-phase structure in TPUs further kinetically immobilize the dynamic bond. This kinetically interlocking between the weak dynamic bonds and strong molecular interaction in hard segments leads to much slower network relaxation of TPU. This work provides a new insight in tuning the network relaxation and heat resistance as well as molecular self-assembly in stimulus-responsive dynamic polymers by both molecular design and micro-phase control toward the functional applications of advanced materials.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21774135).

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Engineering Plasties, CAS Researeh/Edueation Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Yue Lai, Wen-Hong Yang, Yu Wang, Ping Zhu, Xia Dong & Du-Jin Wang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yue Lai, Wen-Hong Yang, Jing-Pu Li, Xia Dong & Du-Jin Wang

  3. The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, 30332, United States

    Xiao Kuang

  4. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Yu Wang

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  1. Yue Lai
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  4. Yu Wang
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Correspondence to Xia Dong.

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Lai, Y., Kuang, X., Yang, WH. et al. Dynamic Bonds Mediate π-π Interaction via Phase Locking Effect for Enhanced Heat Resistant Thermoplastic Polyurethane. Chin J Polym Sci 39, 154–163 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-020-2494-7

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