Healable, luminescent, notch-insensitive waterborne polyurethane via noncovalent crosslinking with hydrogen bonds and ionic interactions

Luminescent materials display their fascinating performance in wearable electronics, optoelectronics, and information interactions. Enhancing reliability and longevity is particularly attractive for next-generation luminescent polymeric materials. Here we fabricate a supramolecular healable, luminescent waterborne polyurethane (Supra-LWPU) by incorporating reversible hydrogen bonds and ionic interactions into the noncovalent crosslinking network. The Supra-LWPU polymer exhibits excellent mechanical performance with robust tensile strength (6.8 MPa), superior stretchability (1755.4 %), high toughness (70.9 MJ m−3), and damage tolerance (44.7 KJ m−2). Owing to the sacrificial and reversible hard domains, the damaged network demonstrates a dynamic rearrangement with efficient healing efficiency (92.1 %), accompanying the restored toughness (65.3 MJ m−3) at 60 °C after 24 h. Multiple H-bonds induce aggregation domain formation of tertiary amine groups, rendering a luminous polyurethane network. An aggregate luminescence behavior can effectively assist in observing the healing process of Supra-LWPU networks. The mechanically responsive luminescent (MRL) device with well-organized microcracks exhibits strain-dependent luminescence for fluorescent patterns, demonstrating promise in next-generation stimuli responsive light-emitting materials.