2022 Volume 43 Issue 6 Pages 253-261
The incorporation of reversible crosslinks has been widely studied to improve the mechanical properties of polymer materials. To effectively utilize reversible crosslinks, it is important to control not only its molecular structure but also its arrangement in the polymer chain. In this study, we aimed to further improve the mechanical properties of gradient copolymers with hydrogen bonding diol units by introducing a short diol block at one chain end. The synthesized block gradient copolymer formed a multiphase structure consisting of a hard and soft phase. The hard phases consisted of the diol rich segments at both chain ends, acting as semipermanent crosslinks. As a result, the polymer showed rubber-like elastic behavior at room temperature, and the high toughness and self-recovery were observed due to the existence of a strong network structure. From the comparison with the corresponding gradient copolymers, we found that mechanical properties can be significantly improved only by introducing a short diol end block.
