Authors: Mai Suzuki, Taiki Hayashi, Takuya Hikino, Masafumi Kishi, Takamichi Matsuno, Hiroaki Wada, Kazuyuki Kuroda, Atsushi Shimojima
Published: 2023-07-28
Source: Full article
AbstractSelf‐healing ability is crucial to increasing the lifetime and reliability of materials. In this study, spatiotemporal control of the healing of a polysiloxane material is achieved using a cleavable cage compound encapsulating a fluoride ion (F−), which triggeres the dynamic rearrangement of the siloxane (Si–O–Si) networks. A self‐healing siloxane‐based elastomer is prepared by cross‐linking polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with a F−‐encapsulating cage‐type germoxane (Ge–O–Ge) compound. This material can self‐heal repeatedly under humid conditions. The F− released by hydrolytic cleavage of the cage framework contributes to rejoining of the cut pieces by promoting the local rearrangement of the siloxane networks. The use of a molecular cage encapsulating a catalyst for dynamic bond rearrangement provides a new concept for designing self‐healing polysiloxane materials based on integrated extrinsic and intrinsic mechanisms.