Self-repairing elastomer based on imidazole π–π stacking interaction

Most self-healing materials have complex chemical structures and require cumbersome preparation processes, which seriously limit their large-scale application in the fields of electronic skins, wearable devices, biomedical applications and soft robotics. In this study, self-healing elastomers based on π–π stacking between imidazole groups were prepared by simpler and faster photo-polymerization with butyl acrylate (BA) and 1-vinyl imidazole (VIM), coded as BVn. Due to the imidazole groups in the side chains, the prepared elastomers had excellent self-repairing properties. After healing at 60 °C for 24 h, the strength and elongation at break of the repaired sample recovered to 97.2% and 95.4% of the original values, respectively. Importantly, the BVn based elastomers relied on π–π stacking interactions between imidazole groups rather than covalent crosslinks and could be recycled. These new self-repairing composite elastomers with high thermal stabilities, high elongations at break, good recoverabilites and high self-repairing efficiencies have great application potentials.