Summary: Self-healing thermoplastic elastomers
Kathleen Feldman, Craig Hawker, Ed Kramer ­ UCSB; Bert Meijer ­ TU Eindhoven
Supported by NSF DMR 0520415: IRG-1
A new class of thermoplastic elastomers has been made consisting of soft, rubbery
polymers modified with very strong but reversibly associating `sitcky' groups. With only a
slight modification, viscous polymer liquids are transformed into elastic solids capable of
forming self-supporting films. The properties of such materials can be finely tuned through
the underlying chemical structure, and the reversibility of the `sticky' interaction gives them
strong adhesive and self-healing characteristics.
A new class of thermoplastic elastomers has been made consisting of soft, rubbery
polymers modified with very strong but reversibly associating `sitcky' groups. With only a
slight modification, viscous polymer liquids are transformed into elastic solids capable of
forming self-supporting films. The properties of such materials can be finely tuned through
the underlying chemical structure, and the reversibility of the `sticky' interaction gives them
strong adhesive and self-healing characteristics.
K.E. Feldman, M.J. Kade, T.F.A. de Greef, E.W. Meijer, E.J. Kramer, C.J. Hawker. Macromolecules, 2008, 41 (13), pp 4694­4700
K.E. Feldman, M.J. Kade, E.W. Meijer, C.J. Hawker, E.J. Kramer. (In preparation)


Source: Akhmedov, Azer - Department of Mathematics, University of California at Santa Barbara

Collections: Mathematics