A furan-containing biomimetic multiphase structure for strong and supertough sustainable adhesives

Development of sustainable adhesives requires simultaneous realization of high strength and excellent ductility but remains challenging. Here, we prepare furan-ring-containing biomimetic multiphase polymers to afford fully sustainable, strong, and supertough adhesives, showing that the key factors of these adhesives are the asymmetric structure of the aromatic furan ring and its oxygenated nature. The adhesives exhibit several beneficial structural features: easy phase separation, dynamic hard phases capable of rupturing and re-forming to dissipate energy, strain-induced orientation and recrystallization, and multiple oxygen binding to substrates. All of these factors act in synergy to result in high adhesion strength (12.1 MPa), exceptional toughness (work of debonding >13,000 N m−1), excellent temperature adaptability, and impressive solvent resistance. Thus, the present work provides new perspectives on the design of strong, tough, and fully sustainable adhesives. [Display omitted] •Strong, tough, and recyclable adhesives are reported•The furan rings offer enhanced interfacial interactions that influence performance•High thermal stability and solvent resistance are observed•It is easy to fabricate functional composite adhesives Preparing sustainable adhesives that realize high strength and ductility is a challenge. To this end, Wang et al. prepare furan-ring-containing biomimetic multiphase polymers as adhesives capable of enhanced interfacial interactions that outperform commercial adhesives and many previously reported materials.