UV-cured self-replenishing hydrophobic polymer films

作者：Zhang Y; Rocco C; Karasu F; van der Ven L G J; van Benthem R A T M; Allonas X; Croutxe Barghorn C; Esteves A C C^*; de With G

来源：Polymer, 2015, 69: 384-393.

DOI：10.1016/j.polymer.2015.02.036

• Self-replenishing
• Hydrophobic
• UV-curing

Self-healing functional polymer surfaces, designed with an intrinsic and spontaneous mechanism which replenishes the damaged surfaces with the original chemical functionalities, are of great interest to maintain a high performance of the functionality and extend the life-time of materials.
We report self-replenishing UV-cured hydrophobic polymer films prepared through the incorporation of methacrylate-terminated perfluorinated-dangling chains into poly(ethylene glycol diacrylate) (PEGDA)-based networks. The films are able to spontaneously and fully self-replenish the surface hydrophobicity, multiple times, upon consecutive intentional damages. The rate of recovery was found to be dependent on the glass transition temperature (T-g) of the networks, which directly correlates to the PEG block length in the PEGDA oligomer used. This study demonstrates that an intrinsic self-replenishing mechanism can be implemented in new network architectures, created rapidly and efficiently by free radical UV-polymerization, which allows preparing self-healing functional polymer films in a faster and eco-friendlier way.

• 出版日期2015-7-9