A novel bio-based degradable, reinforced vitrimer regulated by intramolecular hydrogen bonding

Designing a reinforced vitrimer of efficient dynamic bond exchange is of difficulty and urgently necessary. Herein, the intramolecular hydrogen bonds were derived from bio-based resource and employed to prepare reinforced degradable and catalyst-free vitrimers (DM-3SH and DT-3SH) via thiol-ene “click” reaction. As a result, cured DM-3SH and DT-3SH obtained excellent properties in mechanical, recycle, and degradation, especially DT-3SH showed rapid degradation speed and low transesterification activation energy (71.15 kJ/mol). Intramolecular hydrogen bonds were confirmed to reinforce and accelerate dynamic bond exchange and degradation. Utilizing different numbers of intramolecular hydrogen bonds, this work endows materials reinforcement, recyclability, and degradation, contributing to sustainable development of thermosetting resin .