Diselenide as a Dual Functional Mechanophore Capable of Stress Self-Reporting and Self-Strengthening in Polyurethane Elastomers

Unlike biological materials that can sense mechanical force and actively remodel locally,synthetic polymers typically break down under stress.Molecular-level responses to damage with both stress-reporting and self-strengthening functions are significant yet difficult to realize for synthetic polymers.To overcome this challenge,chemo-mechanical coupling into polymers that can simultaneously ameliorate mechanical,optical,or other functional properties of a polymer combined with mechanical treatment will offer a new principle for materials design.Here,we report a kind of elastomer in which destructive forces are channelled into productive and bond-forming reactions by using diselenide(Se–Se)as a mechanophore.Polyurethane has been functionalized with labile Se–Se bonds,whosemechanical activation generates seleno radicals that trigger radical transfer and cross-linking reactions in situ.These reactions are activated efficiently in a mechanical way by compression in bulk materials.The resulting covalent networks possess turn-on mechano-fluorescence and increased moduli,which provide the functions of stress reporting,mechano-healing,and mechano-remodeling for the deformed film.This study not only illuminates themechano-responsive nature of Se–Se bonds in the bulk state but also paves the way for the development of new stress-responsive materials.