Aromatic amine-terminated polysulfide oligomer: Synthesis and application in self-healable polyurea

The dynamic chemistry of disulfide bonds has emerged as one of the most powerful tools used for the fabrication of organic compounds and self-healing materials. In this article, a novel aromatic amine-terminated polysulfide oligomer is first synthesized from thiol-terminated polysulfide oligomer and bis(4-aminophenyl) disulfide via disulfide metathesis mechanism. The resulting oligomer is confirmed by FTIR and 1 H NMR spectra and then successfully applied in constructing self-healable polyurea material (A-LP23-I), which combines the advantages of higher strength of polyureas and excellent self-healing ability of polysulfide-based materials. After subjecting to a temperature of 75 °C for 48 h, both the tensile strength and ultimate elongation of A-LP23-I restore to more than 90% of the original values (3.32 MPa and 396%). This study demonstrates a novel strategy for synthesizing aromatic amine-terminated oligomer. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019, 57, 1460–1466