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A Transparent, High Refractive, Shape‐Memory, Healable, and Recyclable Phenolic Polyurethane Thermoset: Unexpected Roles of Bromine Substituents and Tertiary Amine Catalysts
Author(s) -
Bai Lu,
Zheng Junping
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.201900493
Subject(s) - thermosetting polymer , polyurethane , materials science , curing (chemistry) , ultimate tensile strength , amine gas treating , polymer chemistry , catalysis , high refractive index polymer , composite material , refractive index , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , chemistry , optoelectronics , engineering
Abstract The applications of polyurethane (PU) thermosets are limited by the lack of plasticity after curing due to permanent crosslinks. Besides, the low refractive index is insufficient for optical devices. Here, a transparent, high refractive, recyclable, and healable PU thermoset is developed based on dynamic bromined phenyl‐carbamate bonds (BPCB). It exhibits tensile strength of ≈52 MPa, good shape‐memory ability, and can be reprocessed or healed nearly completely at 110 °C in 30 min. Tertiary amine catalysts and bromine substituents jointly play unexpected roles to promote the forward and reverse reactions significantly, leading to high bond‐exchange efficiency of BPCB. Furthermore, the introducing of BPCB can endow the material with higher refractive index ( n D = 1.5850) simultaneously. In summary, this material is of potential as dynamic PU thermoset in various fields, especially in advanced optical devices.