Moisture-mediated intrinsic self-healing of modified polyurethane urea polymers

Functional materials having the ability to self-heal cracks or scratches after damage are of great interest for a huge scope of applications. Herein, we report a self-healing polyurethane urea-based material with implemented 1-(2-aminoethyl) imidazolidone (UDETA) as a chain terminating molecule and for hydrogen bond network formation. Both, UDETA content and moisture affected the self-healing process. The reversible change in the materials properties was proven by detailed analyses of hardness and thermomechanical behavior in dependence of the water uptake of the samples. FT-IR analysis revealed that water is able to act as a plasticizer interrupting hydrogen bonding interactions within the polymer network and thus, influencing glass transition temperature and hardness of the samples. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018, 56, 537-548.