DHU research team recently constructed a type of “green” plastics based on hydrogen bonding that combines high strength and high modulus with water-assisted arbitrary shaping. The research is published in Advanced Materials titled “Hydrogen-Bonding Affords Sustainable Plastics with Ultrahigh Robustness and Water-assisted Arbitrarily Shape Engineering”. The first author is Gong Kai, a graduate student in the College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology of DHU. The corresponding authors are Professor Wu Peiyi and Associate Researcher Hou Lei of DHU.
In recent years, plastics processing with water has attracted much attention. Challenges still exist in constructing “green” plastics with excellent mechanical properties and convenient water-processability.
Wu Peiyi and Hou Lei’s research team of DHU has proposed a new strategy to construct “green” plastics using supramolecular plasticity hydrogels (SPHs) as a processing platform. The shape of the plastics can be reversibly engineered by air drying of the SPHs with diverse 2D/3D shapes and structures, which are generated conveniently via origami, kirigami, embossing, etc., in virtue of plastics deformation and shape memory effect of SPHs. In addition, due to the supramolecular properties of SPHs, the obtained plastics can be recycled and reprocessed.
Preparation of MC/PMAA SPHs
Shape editing, application and reprocessability of MC/PMAA plastics
