화학공학소재연구정보센터
Polymer, Vol.128, 386-391, 2017
Mechanical properties of supramolecular elastomers prepared from polymer-grafted polyrotaxane
Supramolecular slide-ring (SR) elastomers without solvent were fabricated by cross-linking of polymer-grafted polyrotaxane in which alpha-cyclodextrins (CDs) with poly-epsilon-caprolactone (PCL) side chains are threaded on a polyethylene glycol (PEG) axial linear chain. The cross-links in the SR elastomers are capable of sliding along the backbone in response to applied stress. Mechanical properties of the SR elastomers with different cross-linking densities were compared with those of fixed cross-link (FC) elastomers prepared from PCL-grafted hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) to understand the influence of the slidable cross-links. The SR elastomers are found to undergo less strain-hardening at large strains and demonstrate higher strains at break than the conventional FC elastomers with the same Young's moduli. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.