Dynamic Covalent Polymers via Inverse Vulcanization of Elemental Sulfur for Healable Infrared Optical Materials

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• 作者：Jared J. Griebel ; Ngoc A. Nguyen ; Soha Namnabat ; Laura E. Anderson ; Richard S. Glass ; Robert A. Norwood ; Michael E. Mackay ; Kookheon Char ; Jeffrey Pyun
• 刊名：ACS Macro Letters
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：September 15, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：4
• 期：9
• 页码：862-866
• 全文大小：298K
• ISSN：2161-1653

文摘

We report on dynamic covalent polymers derived from elemental sulfur that can be used as thermally healable optical polymers for mid-IR thermal imaging applications. By accessing dynamic S鈥揝 bonds in these sulfur copolymers, surface scratches and defects of free-standing films of poly(sulfur-random-1,3-diisopropenylbenzene) (poly(S-r-DIB) can be thermally healed, which enables damaged lenses and windows from these materials to be reprocessed to recover their IR imaging performance. Correlation of the mechanical properties of these sulfur copolymers with different curing methods provided insights to reprocess damaged samples of these materials. Mid-IR thermal imaging experiments with windows before and after healing of surface defects demonstrated successful application of these materials to create a new class of 鈥渟cratch and heal鈥?optical polymers. The use of dynamic covalent polymers as healable materials for IR applications offers a unique advantage over the current state of the art (e.g., germanium or chalcogenide glasses) due to both the dynamic character and useful optical properties of S鈥揝 bonds.