Environmentally Friendly Method To Prepare Thermo-Reversible, Self-Healable Biobased Elastomers by One-Step Melt Processing

Thermo-reversible elastomers (TRE) can be repeatedly processed and, thus, can reduce the dependence of the petroleum for synthetic rubber. The preparation of TRE is generally carried out in solution, and it requires a long reaction time. These disadvantages limit the large scale preparation of TRE. In the present work, we chose the epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) as the matrix and designed a new method to prepare thermo-reversible, self-healable ENR by a catalyzed ring-opening (RO) reaction of ENR followed by a Diels–Alder (DA) reaction through one-step melt blending for the first time. Furfurylamine (FA) was first grafted onto ENR (ENR–FA) by an RO reaction under the presence of catalyzer, and then bismaleimide (BMI) was added to induce the cross-linking of ENR–FA via DA reaction, which can be easily realized during melt blending. As the DA reaction is reversible at different temperatures, the mechanical properties of thermo-reversible ENR (TRENR) could be tailored by the ratio of FA to BMI. The TRENR is...