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  • Ultrauniform Embedded Liqui...
    Xin, Yumeng; Peng, Hao; Xu, Jun; Zhang, Jiuyang

    Advanced functional materials, April 25, 2019, Letnik: 29, Številka: 17
    Journal Article

    Liquid metals (LMs) are receiving growing interest in modern technologies for their various advantages. This work reports using elemental sulfur to achieve nanodispersed liquid metals in bulk polymers for multifunctional LM‐based materials. Ring‐opening polymerization and inverse vulcanization of elemental sulfur provide many polysulfide loops and thiol groups as effective binding ligands that enable extraordinarily uniform dispersion of liquid metals (≈1 µm) in bulk matrix and improve the mechanical performance of the materials. Interestingly, the liquid‐metal‐embedded sulfur polymer (LMESP) materials exhibit excellent thermal‐/solvent‐processability and recyclability. The uniform dispersion leads to phenomenal electrical conductivity of the LMESP at a low volume percentage of LM (30 vol%), overcoming the issue of nonconductivity typically seen in insulated LM–polymer blends. Additionally, the LMESP shows resistive sensitivity toward external pressure. Furthermore, the LMESP materials exhibit an excellent self‐healing ability under mild conditions via the dynamic bonds between polysulfide loops/thiol groups and liquid metals. This work clearly offers a new platform to design liquid metals and can push them for broad applications. Elemental sulfur is used to achieve nanodispersed liquid metals (LMs) in bulk polymers for multifunctional LM‐based materials. The resulting liquid‐metal‐embedded sulfur polymer shows unique features in different aspects, including superior dispersion of liquid metals, excellent thermal‐/solvent‐processability and recyclability, improved mechanical performance, phenomenal electrical conductivity, resistive pressure‐sensitivity, and remarkable self‐healing under mild conditions.