Preparation of self-healing, recyclable epoxy resins and low-electrical resistance composites based on double-disulfide bond exchange

Vitrimers have been emerged as a new class of polymers with many attractive properties of material processing such as reshaping, recycling and repairing. Herein, a new type of vitrimers (BDSER) based on thermosetting dynamic epoxy network with double disulfide bonds was synthesized by the reaction of a difunctional epoxy monomer containing disulfide bonds with 4,4′-disulfanediyldianiline (4-AFD). Our results demonstrated that the relaxation time of BDSER at 200 °C was as short as 9 s without any catalyst. The storage modulus of BDSER was up to about 2.2 GPa and its glass transition temperature was higher than 130 °C. Additionally, the thermodynamic and chemical properties of BDSER were no significant loss after 3 cycles of continuous breaking/compression molding. Furthermore, the resistance of CNT/PPy/Vitrimer composites (CPV), synthesized by doped BDSER with the polypyrrole (PPy) decorated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (WMCNTs), was decreased to 10⁹ Ω even the mass ratio was only 1%wt, which could be used a promising candidate as self-repairing materials in the field of antistatic.