Room temperature self-healing natural rubber based on ionic supramolecular network

Abstract

In this work, zinc thiolate was used as a potential ionic cross-linker in self-healing natural rubber. Incorporation of zinc thiolate enables the materials to recover its 80 % of its functionality when they are impaired at room temperature without any external resources. Evidence from Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) revealed that intermolecular diffusion occurred at the fracture area of the self-healing samples. FTIR results indicated that the growth peak at around 900 cm-1and 1000 cm-1pertaining to the formation of reversible zinc thiolate graft polymerized onto natural rubber molecular chains. Evidence that self-healing mechanism in natural rubber originated from the supramolecular network of ionic crosslinks and covalent within the rubber matrices was provided by crosslink density measurement.