Enhancing Self-healing Properties in Polymer Materials Through Cooperative Supramolecular Interactions: CoopHeal

Programme(s): H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions 
H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility

Topic(s): MSCA-IF-2018 - Individual Fellowships

Call for proposal: H2020-MSCA-IF-2018

Funding Scheme: MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF

Grant agreement ID: 843090

Project description: Better self-healing polymers that can rapidly recover from damage

Synthetic materials that can self-heal either autonomously or in response to an external stimulus can find use in anything from 3D applications and biocompatible body parts to spacecraft. Among the most common types of self-healing materials are supramolecular polymers. In such structures, the polymer chains are endowed with chemical functions that can associate selectively through reversible and dynamic noncovalent interactions. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the CoopHeal project will address key problems that hinder commercialisation of self-healing polymers. Researchers will synthesise polymers that combine supramolecular motifs that can strongly bind through multiple and cooperative noncovalent interactions with polymer chains that are flexible enough to facilitate recombination after damage.

Objective: The use of specific non-covalent interactions between molecular assemblies constitutes a general strategy to design a large variety of sophisticated materials. Functional supramolecular polymer materials have attracted the attention of scientists because of their multiple potential applications and their attractive improved properties, such as easy processing and recyclability. In this context, the main objective in CoopHeal is to introduce cooperative all-or-nothing interactions in supramolecular polymers. We will combine dinucleoside motifs able to strongly bind through multiple noncovalent interactions, with telechelic polymer chains that are flexible enough to facilitate recombination after damage. Our target material would be a thermoplastic polymer with optimal mechanical properties for easy processing and applied purposes, and with outstanding stimuli-responsive self-healing ability. The platform opens interesting opportunities for both the fundamental exploration of structure-property relationships and the design of technologically useful and economically viable materials. CoopHeal introduces fundamental challenges and unprecedented approaches in chemical self-assembly and constitutes the best research scenario for the MSC candidate, Dr. Anselmo del Prado Abellán, to learn from different fields across physical and polymer sciences and others to further develop his scientific career. The host Nanostructured Molecular Systems and Materials group at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), directed by Prof. David González-Rodríguez (DGR), is an active, emergent group, with a strong background in the topics of the proposal, and funded, among others, by ERCgranted projects.