A Facile Strategy to Bond Chemically Different Materials Based on Interfacial Interlocked Polymer Networks

The present study reports a facile method for gluing chemically different materials without pretreatment of their surfaces by in situ simultaneous formation of multiple interfacial adhesions and cohesion based on the concept of reversibly interlocked polymer networks (RILNs). As a demonstration of the design, the cross-linked polyacrylate containing reversible boronic ester bonds (SN-PA) and cross-linked polyurethane containing reversible disulfide bonds (SN-PU) are stacked and then sandwiched between the target adherends, glass, and fluoropolymer encapsulated polyethylene terephthalate (TPT). Besides, zirconium ions are incorporated into SN-PU in advance. Under hot compression, the two types of reversible covalent bonds are triggered and the temporarily de-cross-linked hydrophilic SN-PA and hydrophobic SN-PU are able to well wet glass and TPT, respectively, and interdiffuse across the SN-PA/SN-PU boundary. During the subsequent cooling, hydrogen bonds and coordination bonds are built up at the polymer/adherend interfaces, while RILNs are produced between SN-PA and SN-PU so that the peeling strength of the bonded glass/TPT assembly achieves 38.94 N/cm, which is higher than the values reported so far.