Mechanically strong and stiff supramolecular polymers enabled by fiber reinforced long‐chain alkane matrix

Abstract

Fiber-reinforced-concrete (FRC) mechanism refers short discrete fibers that are uniformly distributed and randomly oriented, which offers an effective way to improve the mechanical performance of concrete. In the design of supramolecular polymers, an analogous concept of FRC appears to have been considered very rarely-although fibrous structure has been frequently observed/generated during the supramolecular polymerization. In this work, we apply the alkane thermosets, octadecane (C 18 H 38 ) and tetracosane (C 24 H 50 ), taking the role of "concrete", and the low-molecular-weight monomer with long alkyl chains as the essential "fiber" component, to fabricate the "fiber reinforced supramolecular polymer". Very much like FRC mechanism in material science, the resulting fiber reinforced supramolecular polymer thus exhibit unusually high mechanical strength and stiffness, which is unprecedented in the conventional supramolecular strategy.

The aqueous supramolecular chemistry of crown ethers

“…Supramolecular polymers are formed through non-covalent, directional interactions between monomeric building blocks. Assembly of these polymers is reversible, which enables functions such as coating, self-healing, and responsiveness (Wei et al, 2014;Xiao et al, 2020b;Lv et al, 2021). Water is typically regarded as a solvent in the assembly of supramolecular polymers; however, in 2017, Qi and Dong et al reported a supramolecular polymer in which water acted as an indispensable comonomer in the supramolecular polymerization (Dong et al, 2017b).…”