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“Solid-Liquid” Vitrimers Based on Dynamic Boronic Ester Networks

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Abstract

The “solid-liquid” behavior of vitrimers have not been systematically investigated. Herein, a series of “solid-liquid” vitrimers bearing varying contents of dynamic boronic ester bonds were synthesized via thiol-ene click reactions. These vitrimers allow for flexibile modulation of their network structures and thus show a range of intriguing properties including high stretchability, flexible transition from elasticity to plasticity, strong strain rate dependence, and solid-liquid performance. The dynamic association rate of boronic ester bonds within these vitrimers could be apparently accelerated via increasing the content of boronic ester, which could be used to shape-program the flat vitrimer films into various complex 3D structures just with external force. Materials with such versatile dynamic behavior may open up a range of new applications.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51973023) and Sichuan Science and Technology Program (No. 2021JDRC0014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INM - Leibniz Institute for New Materials, Campus D2 2, Saarbrücken, 66123, Germany

    Sheng Wang, Lu-Lu Xue, Xiao-Zhuang Zhou & Jia-Xi Cui

  2. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Sheng Wang

  3. Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China

    Jia-Xi Cui

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  1. Sheng Wang
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  2. Lu-Lu Xue
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  3. Xiao-Zhuang Zhou
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Correspondence to Jia-Xi Cui.

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Wang, S., Xue, LL., Zhou, XZ. et al. “Solid-Liquid” Vitrimers Based on Dynamic Boronic Ester Networks. Chin J Polym Sci 39, 1292–1298 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-021-2592-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-021-2592-1

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