Highly Stretchable Fully Biomass Autonomic Self-Healing Polyamide Elastomers and Their Foam for Selective Oil...

Area of Science:

• Polymer Science
• Materials Chemistry
• Sustainable Materials

Background:

• Renewable polymers with self-healing, hydrophobic, and oil-absorbent properties are crucial for applications like e-skin, soft robots, and environmental remediation.
• Existing materials often lack a combination of these desirable attributes or are not derived from sustainable sources.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize and characterize novel, fully renewable, eco-friendly polyamide (PA)-based self-healing elastomers.
• To investigate the self-healing, mechanical, and hydrophobic properties of these bio-based PAs.
• To explore the potential of these materials for selective oil absorption applications.

Main Methods:

• Facile and green one-pot melt polycondensation of itaconic acid (IA), Pripol 1009, and Priamine 1075 monomers to create PA36,IA and PA36,36.
• Molecular structure analysis using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), and 13C NMR.
• Fabrication of PA36,36 foam using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) batch foaming for oil absorption studies.

Main Results:

• Synthesized PA36,IA and PA36,36 elastomers demonstrated superior strain values (>2300%) and autonomous self-healing at ambient temperature.
• PA36,36 exhibited zero water absorption and hydrophobic properties (contact angle θ = 91°), attributed to its unique molecular structure.
• The PA36,36 foam showed excellent selective oil absorption capacity and stability over repeated uses due to its microporous structure.

Conclusions:

• Fully renewable, bio-based polyamides with excellent self-healing and mechanical properties have been successfully synthesized.
• The hydrophobic PA36,36 demonstrates significant potential for selective oil absorption, particularly when fabricated into foam.
• These findings highlight the promise of these eco-friendly elastomers for developing sustainable materials in diverse technological fields.