Toughening a Self-Healable Supramolecular Polymer by Ionic Cluster-Enhanced Iron-Carboxylate Complexes

Supramolecular polymers that can heal themselves automatically usually exhibit weakness in mechanical toughness and stretchability. Here we exploit a toughening strategy for a dynamic dry supramolecular network by introducing ionic cluster-enhanced iron-carboxylate complexes. The resulting dry supramolecular network simultaneous exhibits tough mechanical strength, high stretchability, self-healing ability, and processability at room temperature. The excellent performance of these distinct supramolecular polymers is attributed to the hierarchical existence of four types of dynamic combinations in the high-density dry network, including dynamic covalent disulfide bonds, noncovalent H-bonds, iron-carboxylate complexes and ionic clustering interactions. The extremely facile preparation method of this self-healing polymer offers prospects for high-performance low-cost material among others for coatings and wearable devices.