Preparation of highly transparent, room-temperature self-healing and recyclable silicon elastomers based on dynamic imine bond and their ion responsive properties

Abstract It is always a challenge to achieve multifunctional rubbers or thermosets materials that possess both self-heal ability in the using and recyclability in the disposing. Herein a novel self-healing silicon elastomer with an excellent recyclability was prepared by incorporating imine-based cross-linked structure. Such silicon elastomer had high self-healing capability with a maximum healing efficiency of 95% at room temperature. Besides, they exhibited high optical transmittance up to 91% and selective fluorescence quenching toward Fe3+ ion properties.