Non-swellable self-healing polymer with long-term stability under seawater

Polymers are widely used in marine environments due to their unique thermal/mechanical properties. Imparting self-healing ability to those polymers would be a beneficial strategy for improved durability; e.g. extending the life time and reducing the maintenance cost. However, most of the existing self-healing polymers suffer from swelling-induced mechanical instability and loss of self-healing ability because of a severe water uptake in fully submerged conditions. Thus, a judicious design principle to prevent the swelling-induced deterioration of the self-healing polymers is greatly required for the long-term use in water-related applications. In this study, we report a polymer that is non-swellable (