Nanoimprinting of Crosslinked Polyurethane / Polycaprolactone Blends: Scratch Recovery of Surface Topographies

Abstract

Scratch recovery of micro‐nano‐patterned polymer surfaces extends the service life of products that require tunable surface properties and contributes to more sustainable development. Scratch recovery has been widely studied in bulk and 4D‐printed polymers via intrinsic self‐healing mechanisms. Existing studies on self‐healing of micro/nano‐scale polymeric surfaces are limited to the recovery of controlled tensile or compressive strain. Scratch recovery requires material transport to close the gap created by a scratch. Here, for the first time, scratch recovery of thermally nanoimprinted polymer surfaces in a heterogeneous polymer is reported. A blend of Polyurethane (TPU) and poly(caprolactone) (PCL) with selectively crosslinked TPU imparts shape‐memory properties, and the uncrosslinked PCL retains chain mobility for molecular diffusion during scratch recovery. Scratch recovery of nanoimprinted micro‐pillars has been achieved spontaneously and completely by heat and without any pressure input. The healing temperature is determined to be the melting point of PCL at 60 °C. Rapid recovery is also achieved at 60 s with complete closure of scratch width of 5 µm and topography recovery of the nanoimprinted micro‐pillars.