Self-healing response in supramolecular polymers based on reversible zinc-histidine interactions

Histidine-metal interactions are utilized in many biological materials as reinforcing crosslinks, and in particular, are believed to contribute as reversible crosslinks to the intrinsic self-recovery behavior of mussel byssal threads. In this contribution, two new histidine-based monomers were synthesized and further copolymerized with butyl methacrylate (BMA) and lauryl methacrylate (LMA) applying the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization technique. Crosslinking with zinc ions resulted in supramolecular metallopolymer networks exhibiting a self-healing behavior that was tunable depending on the specific zinc salt used. The presented results provide a class of new polymeric species with different self-healing capacities. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.