Université de Fribourg

Optically healable supramolecular polymers

Burnworth, Mark ; Tang, Liming ; Kumpfer, Justin R. ; Duncan, Andrew J. ; Beyer, Frederick L. ; Fiore, Gina L. ; Rowan, Stuart J. ; Weder, Christoph

In: Nature, 2011, vol. 472, p. 334–337

Polymers with the ability to repair themselves after sustaining damage could extend the lifetimes of materials used in many applications. Most approaches to healable materials require heating the damaged area. Here we present metallosupramolecular polymers that can be mended through exposure to light. They consist of telechelic, rubbery, low-molecular-mass polymers with ligand end groups that are...