2024 | Xuewei Jiao, Yaning Ma, Zihan Zhao, Liang Gao, Baoyan Zhang, Jigang Yang, Min-Hui Li, Jun Hu
This paper presents a high-performance epoxy resin (TDS) that features dynamic ester and disulfide bonds, offering superior mechanical properties and green closed-loop recycling capabilities. The TDS resin exhibits high tensile and flexural strengths, a high glass transition temperature (Tg), and excellent thermal stability. The reversible transformation between aromatic disulfide bonds and thyl radicals endows the resin with autonomous visualization of damage and healing. Additionally, the harmonious interplay between disulfide and ester bonds, promoted by tertiary amine, accelerates topological network rearrangements, enabling easy reshaping, welding, degradation, and recycling. The TDS resin can be completely degraded in pure water at 200°C without catalysts, and the degraded products can be directly re-polymerized to achieve green closed-loop recycling. This work provides a simple and economical strategy for developing functional and sustainable epoxy resins.This paper presents a high-performance epoxy resin (TDS) that features dynamic ester and disulfide bonds, offering superior mechanical properties and green closed-loop recycling capabilities. The TDS resin exhibits high tensile and flexural strengths, a high glass transition temperature (Tg), and excellent thermal stability. The reversible transformation between aromatic disulfide bonds and thyl radicals endows the resin with autonomous visualization of damage and healing. Additionally, the harmonious interplay between disulfide and ester bonds, promoted by tertiary amine, accelerates topological network rearrangements, enabling easy reshaping, welding, degradation, and recycling. The TDS resin can be completely degraded in pure water at 200°C without catalysts, and the degraded products can be directly re-polymerized to achieve green closed-loop recycling. This work provides a simple and economical strategy for developing functional and sustainable epoxy resins.