Self-healing Functional Polymers: Optical Property Recovery of Conjugated Polymer Films by Uncatalyzed Imine Metathesis

Abstract

The implementation of a self-healing functionality into materials has become a prevalent approach for materials which require long-term reliability. As of today, the restoration of mechanical properties has dominated the research on self-healing materials, whereas research on healing of other functionalities (e.g., conductivity or optical properties) is still in its infancy. Here, the first conjugated polymer, which can restore its optical properties after photodamage is reported. The proposed self-healing mechanism relies on a thermally triggered imine metathesis between the conjugated polymer and additional macromolecular healing agents with no catalyst needed.