An Eco-Friendly Scheme for the Cross-Linked Polybutadiene Elastomer via Thiol-Ene and Diels-Alder Click Chemistry

We reported a novel method of producing the cross-linked polybutadiene elastomer which could be thermally recycled like the plastic materials without the sacrifice of functional utility. The commercial polybutadiene was first attached with furan via thiol-ene reaction, and the cross-linked network was then built via Diels-Alder click reaction between the bismaleimide and attached furan groups from polybutadiene. The obtained polymer had good solvent resistance from ambient temperature to 100°C. The mechanical properties of modified polybutadiene could be tailored by the amount of attached furan and the ratio of furan to bismaleimide. Furthermore, the dynamic cross-linked polybutadiene had good thermally remolded and self-healing behaviors. By this method, the dynamic cross-linked polybutadiene could be recycled to use in a sustainable way. Concerning all the raw materials were available in large quantities without tedious and multistep synthetic routes, this work demonstrated the high performance recycling solution to the commercial cross-linked polybutadiene, which might be applied in industry in relatively short time.