Incorporations of Reversible Bonds for the Development of Functional and Sustainable High-performance Polymers

Chih-Feng Huang, Ph.D.
Lecture of Institute guest
7.10.2025 14:00, Lecture room A

Functional moieties were introduced to double network (DN) hydrogels. The first example was to introduce a force-sensing rhodamine (Rh) mechanophore. We synthesized Rh–TA and incorporated various amounts of the Rh moiety that not only rendered crosslinking points but also provided significant mechano-sensing features from the spirolactam unit with various reversible structures. The obtained Rh-containing single network (SN) hydrogels were then incorporated with the second network through effective and attractive self-crosslinking reactions and attained strong Rh–DN hydrogels. The amounts of spirolactam units within Rh–DNs resulted in linear relationships between the external stresses and intensities traced by UV–Vis spectrometer and CIE coordinates. The latter provided a facile calibrating platform between color changes and external stresses. Taking a photograph from a hand-pressed sample, as an example, the macroscopic color changes can be reversibly digitalized to the hand-pressed stresses via the platform and converted to mechanographs. Another approach involved introducing a reversible dynamic covalent bond (DCB) network has become an important approach due to the emergence of a circular economy. We combined the advantages of Passerini-type multicomponent polymerization (e.g., one-pot, high atom economy) with α-lipoic acid (LA) to create novel polyamides as potential sustainable vitrimers. The resulting dynamically crosslinked polymer exhibited characteristics of adaptable elastomers, such as re-processability and recyclable adhesion.

The lecture is presented in English