Development of self-healing star metallopolymers by metal-ligand crosslinking

The development of artificial materials with reversible and efficient self-healing property is an emerging and challenging task in intelligent materials science. In this article, we have developed a six-arm star copolymer system consisting of terpyridine moieties as end-chain functionality for the formation of self-healing metallopolymer networks. The star was synthesized using the atom transfer radical polymerization technique and subsequent crosslinking by the addition of iron (II) salts with three different counterions. The resulting materials exhibit promising self-healing performance as compared with a linear polymer system within time intervals of 6-8 h at moderate temperatures of 80-120 degrees C. (c) 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019, 136, 48527.