2021, Meurer, Josefine, Hniopek, Julian, Dahlke, Jan, Schmitt, Michael, Popp, Jürgen, Zechel, Stefan, Hager, Martin D.

This article presents novel biobased ionomers featuring self-healing abilities. These smart materials are synthesized from itaconic acid derivates. Large quantities of itaconic acid can be produced from diverse biomass like corn, rice, and others. This study presents a comprehensive investigation of their thermal and mechanical properties via differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), and FT-Raman and FT-IR measurements as well as dynamic mechanic analysis. Within all these measurements, different kinds of structure-property relationships could be derived from these measurements. For example, the proportion of ionic groups enormously influences the self-healing efficiency. The investigation of the self-healing abilities reveals healing efficiencies up to 99% in 2 h at 90 °C for the itaconic acid based ionomer with the lowest ionic content. © 2020 The Authors. Macromolecular Rapid Communications published by Wiley-VCH GmbH