Parthenocissus-inspired, strongly adhesive, efficiently self-healing polymers for energetic adhesive applications

Abstract

Energetic self-healing adhesives have a positive effect on the energy level, mechanical properties, and microcrack healing performance of energetic composite materials (ECMs). However, it is very challenging to design and synthesize energetic self-healing adhesives with high healing efficiencies and satisfactory mechanical properties. Herein, this study introduced a new design strategy. Plentiful dynamic hydrogen bonds endow the adhesive with high-efficiency self-healing performance, and inspired by Parthenocissus, strong adhesion gives ECMs good mechanical properties. The basic characteristics of this design included: (1) loose hard domains; (2) rapid rearrangement of the hydrogen bonds; and (3) strong interfacial adhesion. The synthetic energetic adhesive polyglycidyl azide (GAP)–isophorone diisocyanate (IDI)–4,4′-methylenedianiline (MDA) completely recovered all mechanical properties within 2 h after breaking at room temperature. Simultaneously, the enthalpy of formation of 1.95 kJ g⁻¹ indicated that the adhesive possesses a good energy level. Significantly, ECMs containing explosive crystal 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB) and our designed energetic self-healing adhesive exhibited good mechanical properties and surprising crack-healing capabilities. In addition, compared with non-energetic adhesive-based ECMs, energetic adhesive-based ECMs exhibited excellent combustion properties. Therefore, the GAP–IDI–MDA adhesive demonstrated strong application potential and this strategy is expected to provide new ideas for the improvement of weapon system security.