Force-induced cleavage of a labile bond for enhanced mechanochemical crosslinking

Abstract

We introduce a simple, yet powerful approach towards force-induced healing polymers. While most synthetic polymers fail in response to stress and have no recovery mechanism, we demonstrate that polymers containing a thiocarbonylthio group exhibit amplified mechanochemical activity. In the presence of a crosslinker, the radicals generated from homolytic cleavage are exploited to trigger a ‘healing’ response within minutes.