Facile one-pot synthesis and self-healing properties of tetrazole-based metallopolymers in the presence of iron salts

Abstract

As promising intelligent materials, self-healing materials have the capability of healing or repairing inflicted damage. Simply, inexpensive and commercial synthetic process is one of the hard issues. By using a facile one-pot two-step methodology, polyacrylonitrile-r-poly(butyl acrylate) (PAN-r-PnBA) was successfully prepared and modified to Fe³⁺/tetrazole-based metallopolymers (MPs) with significant self-healing properties. FeCl₃·6H₂O was used as a catalyst to modify cyano groups with sodium azide (NaN₃) and generate tetrazole group for coordinating with FeCl₃·6H₂O itself. The results indicated that the prepared MPs without any stimulus, can rapidly and autonomously heal inflicted damageat ambient temperature. These self-healing materials which were rapidly prepared with commercial and inexpensive substrates could facilitate the potential for application in a wide range.