Integrating high mechanical strength, excellent healing ability, and antibacterial ability into supramolecular poly(urethane–urea) elastomers by tailoring the intermolecular supramolecular interactions

Abstract

Developing high-performance functional elastomers that integrate robust mechanical properties with high healing efficiency remains a forbidden challenge due to the conflicts among mechanical strength, toughness, and healing ability. Herein, supramolecular poly(urethane–urea) (SPUU) elastomers integrating high mechanical strength, toughness, and high healing efficiency have been successfully synthesized by tailoring the intermolecular hierarchical supramolecular interactions. Relying on the collaborative reinforcement of optimized hierarchical hydrogen bonds, the resulted SPUU_1.8 elastomers exhibited a high mechanical strength of ∼43 MPa and a toughness of ∼154 MJ m⁻³. The rational-designed hierarchical hydrogen bonds endowed the SPUU_x elastomers with excellent healing ability. After blending with curcumin, the mechanical strength and toughness of the supramolecular poly(urethane–urea)/curcumin composites (SPUU_1.8–Cur_y) increased to ∼63 MPa and ∼255 MJ m⁻³, respectively. Meanwhile, the damaged SPUU_1.8–Cur_1% composites also can be healed with a high healing efficiency of ∼97% after heating at 100 °C for 12 h. Moreover, both the pure SPUU membranes and the SPUU_1.8–Cur_y membranes exhibited good antibacterial activity against Gram-positive S. aureus, which demonstrated the potential applications in the field of medical devices. This work provides an efficient solution to develop high-performance elastomers with high mechanical strength, toughness, high healing efficiency, and good antibacterial activity by tailoring the intermolecular supramolecular interactions.