Polyacrylate crosslinked with furyl alcohol grafting bismaleimide: A self-healing polymer coating

Leather surface is easily scratched and then discarded somewhere, which might result in a great waste of resources and economics. Self-healing materials could efficiently solve this problem. In this study, furfuryl alcohol (FA) and bismaleimide (BMI) were introduced to polyacylate for preparing self-healing polyacrylate emulsion (PA/(FA-BMI)), which was used as a finishing agent in leather process. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicated that Diels-Alder reaction had taken place between FA and BMI. The dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy results showed that FA and BMI were dispersed uniformly in polyacrylate. Thermogravimetric analysis results indicated that the addition of FA and BMI increased the thermal stability of polyacrylate. The ultra depth of field microscope (UDFM) results showed that the damaged PA/(FA-BMI) could be self-healing completely when the amount of FA and BMI was 5 %. The leather after finishing with PA/(FA-BMI) could be fully self-healing in 5 h at 50 °C. PA/(FA-BMI) endowed the finished leather good self-healing performance towards scratches on the surfaces. Meanwhile, physical and mechanical properties of the leather finished by PA/(FA-BMI), such as tensile strength, tear strength, wet and dry rub resistance, were also improved obviously.