Thiol–Ene Networks with Tunable Dynamicity for Covalent Adaptation

High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide To be fully recyclable, covalent adaptable networks must ultimately be able to overcome all topological restrictions and flow. By using a statistically based method, it was shown that the extent of stress relaxation in disulfide-containing thiol–ene polymers is closely correlated to the fraction of permanent cross-links. Given sufficient disulfide content, the cured materials can be recycled at moderate temperatures with no apparent loss in tensile properties. Since the materials also feature ester bonds, even when the disulfide content is low, one can increase the reprocessing temperature to trigger transesterification reactions which ensure full stress relaxation and recyclability.