The Final Frontier of Sustainable Materials: Current Developments in Self-Healing Elastomers
It is impossible to describe the recent progress of our society without considering the role of polymers; however, for a broad audience, “<i>polymer</i>” is usually related to environmental pollution. The poor disposal and management of polymeric waste has led to an important environment...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-04-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Molecular Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/9/4757 |
| _version_ | 1797504597677309952 |
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| author | Saul Utrera-Barrios Raquel Verdejo Miguel Ángel López-Manchado Marianella Hernández Santana |
| author_facet | Saul Utrera-Barrios Raquel Verdejo Miguel Ángel López-Manchado Marianella Hernández Santana |
| author_sort | Saul Utrera-Barrios |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | It is impossible to describe the recent progress of our society without considering the role of polymers; however, for a broad audience, “<i>polymer</i>” is usually related to environmental pollution. The poor disposal and management of polymeric waste has led to an important environmental crisis, and, within polymers, plastics have attracted bad press despite being easily reprocessable. Nonetheless, there is a group of polymeric materials that is particularly more complex to reprocess, rubbers. These macromolecules are formed by irreversible crosslinked networks that give them their characteristic elastic behavior, but at the same time avoid their reprocessing. Conferring them a self-healing capacity stands out as a decisive approach for overcoming this limitation. By this mean, rubbers would be able to repair or restore their damage automatically, autonomously, or by applying an external stimulus, increasing their lifetime, and making them compatible with the circular economy model. Spain is a reference country in the implementation of this strategy in rubbery materials, achieving successful self-healable elastomers with high healing efficiency and outstanding mechanical performance. This article presents an exhaustive summary of the developments reported in the previous 10 years, which demonstrates that this property is the last frontier in search of truly sustainable materials. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T04:06:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f928d9e119d742e09f0ec8c2993be411 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1661-6596 1422-0067 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T04:06:49Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Molecular Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-f928d9e119d742e09f0ec8c2993be4112023-11-23T08:21:49ZengMDPI AGInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences1661-65961422-00672022-04-01239475710.3390/ijms23094757The Final Frontier of Sustainable Materials: Current Developments in Self-Healing ElastomersSaul Utrera-Barrios0Raquel Verdejo1Miguel Ángel López-Manchado2Marianella Hernández Santana3Institute of Polymer Science and Technology (ICTP-CSIC), Juan de la Cierva 3, 28006 Madrid, SpainInstitute of Polymer Science and Technology (ICTP-CSIC), Juan de la Cierva 3, 28006 Madrid, SpainInstitute of Polymer Science and Technology (ICTP-CSIC), Juan de la Cierva 3, 28006 Madrid, SpainInstitute of Polymer Science and Technology (ICTP-CSIC), Juan de la Cierva 3, 28006 Madrid, SpainIt is impossible to describe the recent progress of our society without considering the role of polymers; however, for a broad audience, “<i>polymer</i>” is usually related to environmental pollution. The poor disposal and management of polymeric waste has led to an important environmental crisis, and, within polymers, plastics have attracted bad press despite being easily reprocessable. Nonetheless, there is a group of polymeric materials that is particularly more complex to reprocess, rubbers. These macromolecules are formed by irreversible crosslinked networks that give them their characteristic elastic behavior, but at the same time avoid their reprocessing. Conferring them a self-healing capacity stands out as a decisive approach for overcoming this limitation. By this mean, rubbers would be able to repair or restore their damage automatically, autonomously, or by applying an external stimulus, increasing their lifetime, and making them compatible with the circular economy model. Spain is a reference country in the implementation of this strategy in rubbery materials, achieving successful self-healable elastomers with high healing efficiency and outstanding mechanical performance. This article presents an exhaustive summary of the developments reported in the previous 10 years, which demonstrates that this property is the last frontier in search of truly sustainable materials.https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/9/4757self-healing materialsself-healing rubbersnatural rubbersynthetic rubberdynamic networkssupramolecular chemistry |
| spellingShingle | Saul Utrera-Barrios Raquel Verdejo Miguel Ángel López-Manchado Marianella Hernández Santana The Final Frontier of Sustainable Materials: Current Developments in Self-Healing Elastomers International Journal of Molecular Sciences self-healing materials self-healing rubbers natural rubber synthetic rubber dynamic networks supramolecular chemistry |
| title | The Final Frontier of Sustainable Materials: Current Developments in Self-Healing Elastomers |
| title_full | The Final Frontier of Sustainable Materials: Current Developments in Self-Healing Elastomers |
| title_fullStr | The Final Frontier of Sustainable Materials: Current Developments in Self-Healing Elastomers |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Final Frontier of Sustainable Materials: Current Developments in Self-Healing Elastomers |
| title_short | The Final Frontier of Sustainable Materials: Current Developments in Self-Healing Elastomers |
| title_sort | final frontier of sustainable materials current developments in self healing elastomers |
| topic | self-healing materials self-healing rubbers natural rubber synthetic rubber dynamic networks supramolecular chemistry |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/9/4757 |
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