Solvent-Free UV Polymerization of -Octadecyl Acrylate in Butyl Rubber: A Simple Way to Produce Tough and Smart Polymeric Materials at Ambient Temperature.

One of the most fascinating challenges in recent years has been to produce mechanically robust and tough polymers with smart functions such as self-healing and shape-memory behavior. Here, we report a simple and versatile strategy for the preparation of a highly tough and highly stretchable interconnected interpenetrating polymer network (c-IPN) based on butyl rubber (IIR) and poly(-octadecyl acrylate) (PC18A) with thermally induced healing and shape-memory functions. Solvent-free UV polymerization of -octadecyl acrylate (C18A) at 30 ± 2 °C in the presence of IIR leads to IIR/PC18A c-IPNs with sea-island or co-continuous morphologies depending on their IIR contents.