Topology-Regulated Polyurea: From Structural Design to Emerging Applications

As a high-performance elastomeric material, polyurea has attracted considerable attention for use in impact protection, functional coatings, adhesives, and flexible electronics, primarily owing to its excellent mechanical properties, exceptional high-strain-rate response, and chemically tunable molecular architecture. However, the widespread development of polyurea is constrained by several inherent challenges, including the excessively rapid reaction kinetics between isocyanates and amines, limited control of network topology, and restricted functional diversity. In recent years, advances derived from polymer science have enabled notable progress in addressing these limitations. A series of new strategies has been proposed, such as employing low-reactivity amines or blocking approaches to modulate reaction kinetics, precisely engineering network topology, and systematically broadening the potential application scope. Despite these advances, comprehensive and up-to-date reviews that integrate polyurea synthesis methods, topological structural design principles, and application development remain relatively scarce. This review systematically summarizes recent progress in topology-regulated polyurea, covering its synthesis, preparation, and emerging applications and analyzes the design principles of polyurea's topological structure to clarify key structure-property-performance relationships. Additionally, the review comprehensively outlines cutting‑edge advances in polyurea applications across diverse fields and discusses the main challenges and future prospects for developing next‑generation, high‑performance, and multifunctional polyurea materials.