Superior Toughness and Fast Self‐Healing at Room Temperature Engineered by Transparent Elastomers

Abstract The most important properties of self‐healing polymers are efficient recovery at room temperature and prolonged durability. However, these two characteristics are contradictory, making it difficult to optimize them simultaneously. Herein, a transparent and easily processable thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) with the highest reported tensile strength and toughness (6.8 MPa and 26.9 MJ m −3 , respectively) is prepared. This TPU is superior to reported contemporary room‐temperature self‐healable materials and conveniently heals within 2 h through facile aromatic disulfide metathesis engineered by hard segment embedded aromatic disulfides. After the TPU film is cut in half and respliced, the mechanical…

• MO
  Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy
• KI
  Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology