Mechanically Strong and Highly Stiff Supramolecular Polymer Composites Repairable at Ambient Conditions
Jingjing Zhu, George Y. Chen, Li Yu, Haolan Xu, Xiaokong Liu, Junqi Sun
Abstract
It is a formidable challenge to fabricate healable polymeric materials with high mechanical strength and stiffness due to the highly suppressed diffusion of their polymer chains. Herein, a high-strength, highly stiff, and repairable/healable supramolecular polymer composite was fabricated by complexing poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) in aqueous solutions, followed by molding into desired shapes. Exquisitely tuning the electrostatic and H-bonding interactions between PAA and PAH led to associative phase-separation and in situ formation of nanostructures in the resultant PAA–PAH composites. The H-bonded assembly of PAA–PAH complexes existed as nanospheres were dispersed homogeneously in the continuous phase as an electrostatic assembly of PAA–PAH complexes.