A self-healing and recyclable polyurethane/halloysite nanocomposite based on thermoreversible Diels-Alder reaction

The realization of recyclable materials is an urgent problem to be solved for extending practical applications in industry. Herein, a simple method was proposed to prepared the recyclable materials thorough dynamic reversible chemistry. In this work, we design the recyclable and self-healing polyurethane based on the thermoreversible dynamic Diels-Alder reaction. In addition, the Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) were introduced into the system to improve the thermal properties, mechanical properties of polyurethane nanocomposites (PUDM/HNTs). The tensile tests showed that the HNTs can significantly improved the mechanical properties of nanocomposites. The healing efficiency above 90% on average was achieved which was determined by the recovery of breaking strength. Besides, the composites exhibited outstanding reprocessability via thermally induced. Therefore, Such excellent recyclable performance and self-healing ability give the polyurethane materials an opportunity to have great potential in the fields of save-energy, friendly-environment materials. [Display omitted] •The Polyurethane/HNTs nanocomposites show enhanced mechanical and thermal properties.•The polyurethane materials have very high healing efficiency.•The Polyurethane had good thermal self-healing and reprocessability behavior.