Fabricating High Strength Bio-Based Dynamic Networks from Epoxidized Soybean Oil and Poly(Butylene...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Polymer Chemistry
• Sustainable Materials

Background:

• Plastic waste and non-renewable resource consumption pose significant environmental challenges.
• Developing healable, recyclable, bio-based materials is crucial for sustainability.
• Balancing self-healing capabilities with mechanical properties like strength and toughness in these materials is difficult.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel dynamic network material from epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) and poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT).
• To achieve a balance between self-healing efficiency and robust mechanical performance.
• To address the environmental impact of conventional plastics.

Main Methods:

• Functionalization of ESO with thiol and hydroxyl groups via a thiol-epoxy click reaction.
• Curing with isocyanates to form dynamic thiourethane and urethane bonds with varying bond energies.
• Incorporation of flexible PBAT segments to create a multi-phase structure.

Main Results:

• A novel dynamic network was successfully synthesized from ESO and PBAT.
• The material exhibited a trade-off between dynamic features (thiourethane bonds) and mechanical properties (urethane bonds).
• A sample (OTSO100-PBAT100) showed a tensile strength of 33.2 MPa and elongation at break of 1238%, with good self-healing capacity.

Conclusions:

• The developed bio-based material effectively combines desirable mechanical properties with self-healing capabilities.
• This approach offers a promising solution for reducing plastic waste and reliance on non-renewable resources.
• The study successfully addresses the challenge of balancing strength and toughness in self-healing materials.