Dual physical cross-linked self-healing elastomer for the triple shape memory

Self-healing materials can autonomously heal injury like organism, which have attracted increasing attention from academics and industry engineers. However, the mechanical property and self-healing ability of the self-healing material is hard to be reconciled. Here, we report a simple approach to fabricate fast self-healing materials with high mechanical strength and improved triple shape memory effect by incorporation of nanoclay into a polymer matrix. The nanocomposite was prepared by in situ polymerization of poly(ethylene glycol) 400 methyl ether acrylate (mPEG-acrylate) and acryloylmorpholine (ACMO) in the presence of nanoclay. The thus obtained composite exhibits remarkable mechanical properties of an optimistic maximum tensile strength of ~ 8.9 MPa, and high healing efficiency of ~ 99.6% can be achieved after healing for only 1 min at room temperature. This strategy provides insights for the preparation of high-strength, multi-shape memory and fast self-healing composites. Graphical abstract