Issue 24, 2022

Rapid self-healing in IR-responsive plasmonic indium tin oxide/polyketone nanocomposites

Abstract

Rapid self-healing materials are highly demanded to decrease polymer pollution and increase the material’s service life. In this work, we designed a self-healing thermo-responsive nanocomposite containing homogeneously dispersed indium tin oxide (ITO) nanocrystals (NCs). ITO NCs were used as an infrared photothermal source owing to their outstanding near-infrared plasmonic properties and visible transparency. As a polymer matrix, a furan grafted polyketone (PKFU) was prepared via Paal–Knorr functionalization and crosslinked with an aromatic bismaleimide via the Diels–Alder (DA) reaction. Nanocomposites containing the 0.4, 0.9, and 1.5 wt% of ITO NCs showed strong absorption between 1500 and 2250 nm and once exposed to a cheap IR lamp, they showed rapid heating up to temperatures >160 °C within 30 seconds, compared to around 60 °C for the bare polymer. The addition of ITO NCs did not affect the thermal behaviour of the matrix with the retro-Diels–Alder onset above 95 °C and the softening point at 50 °C, which effectively enabled the healing process. Remarkably, the nanocomposite with 0.9 wt% of ITO NCs showed the fastest healing rate: healing occurs after 1 second of IR irradiation, compared to the 50 seconds required for the bare thermoset matrix.

Graphical abstract: Rapid self-healing in IR-responsive plasmonic indium tin oxide/polyketone nanocomposites

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 Feb 2022
Accepted
16 May 2022
First published
17 May 2022

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2022,10, 12957-12967

Rapid self-healing in IR-responsive plasmonic indium tin oxide/polyketone nanocomposites

E. Araya-Hermosilla, A. Gabbani, A. Mazzotta, M. Ruggeri, F. Orozco, V. Cappello, M. Gemmi, R. K. Bose, F. Picchioni, F. Pineider, V. Mattoli and A. Pucci, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2022, 10, 12957 DOI: 10.1039/D2TA01286C

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