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Iron (III) cross-linked thermoplastic nitrile butadiene elastomer with temperature-adaptable self-healing property

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Abstract

Fe cross-linked thermoplastic carboxylated nitrile butadiene rubber (XNBR) materials using Fe-COOH coordination as dynamic cross-links are reported. The transparent and brown Fe cross-linked XNBR (Fe/XNBR) elastomer was prepared by drying of Fe/XNBR organogels, which were fabricated by simple mixing of Fe3+ ethanol solution and XNBR dioxane solution. Tensile tests showed that only a small amount of Fe3+ ions (e.g., COOH/Fe=1/0.086, mol/mol) made the Fe/XNBR had even better tensile strength and stretchability than 2 phr sulphur vulcanized XNBR. Dynamic mechanical analysis demonstrated that the Fe-COOH interaction not only increased the moduli at higher temperatures, but also made the glass transition temperature high-temperature-shifted. In-situ infrared spectra measurements suggested that higher temperatures (e.g, 100°C) generated more trifunctional Fe-COOH cross-links and made the Fe-COOH interaction highly dynamic. The dynamic nature of the Fe-COOH interaction and generation of more trifunctional cross-links at high temperatures endowed fast self-healing and re-molding properties to the Fe/XNBR elastomers. Our result as a proof-of-concept illustrated a simple and cost-efficient way to fabricate self-healable thermoplastic elastomers using metal-ligand coordination in commercial rubbers.

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Acknowledgements

G.W. is grateful for the financial support of Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (grant No. LY19E030002), Ningbo Municipal Science and Technology Bureau (grant No. 2019A610133) and K. C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, China

    Chenghao Dai, Xijuan Cao, Kai Gou, Qiyan Yin, Binjie Du & Gengsheng Weng

  2. Ningbo Key Laboratory of Specialty Polymers, State Key Laboratory Base of Novel Functional Materials and Preparation Science, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, China

    Chenghao Dai, Xijuan Cao, Qiyan Yin & Gengsheng Weng

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  1. Chenghao Dai
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Correspondence to Gengsheng Weng.

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Dai, C., Cao, X., Gou, K. et al. Iron (III) cross-linked thermoplastic nitrile butadiene elastomer with temperature-adaptable self-healing property. J Polym Res 28, 97 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-021-02459-4

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