Vitrimers
Sign in to saveVitrimers are a class of plastics, which are derived from thermosetting polymers (thermosets) and are very similar to them. Vitrimers consist of molecular, covalent networks, which can change their topology by thermally activated bond-exchange reactions. At high temperatures, they can flow like viscoelastic liquids; at low temperatures, the bond-exchange reactions are immeasurably slow (frozen), and the Vitrimers behave like classical thermosets at this point. Vitrimers are strong glass formers. Their behavior opens new possibilities in the application of thermosets, such as a self-healing mat
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
9 sectionsContents
- Background and significance
- Functional principle
- Glass and glass former
- Effect of transesterification and temperature influence
- Fatigue and fracture behaviors of vitrimers
- Applications
- See also
- External links
- References
Vitrimers are a class of plastics, which are derived from thermosetting polymers (thermosets) and are very similar to them. Vitrimers consist of molecular, covalent networks, which can change their topology by thermally activated bond-exchange reactions. At high temperatures, they can flow like viscoelastic liquids; at low temperatures, the bond-exchange reactions are immeasurably slow (frozen), and the Vitrimers behave like classical thermosets at this point. Vitrimers are strong glass formers. Their behavior opens new possibilities in the application of thermosets, such as a self-healing material or simple processibility in a wide temperature range.
Besides epoxy resins based on diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A, other polymer networks have been used to produce vitrimers, such as aromatic polyesters, polylactic acid (polylactide), polyhydroxyurethanes, epoxidized soybean oil with citric acid, and polybutadiene. Vitrimers were termed as such in the early 2010s by French researcher Ludwik Leibler from the CNRS.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Vitrimers” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.