A facile method for imparting sunlight driven catalyst-free self-healability and recyclability to commercial silicone elastomer

A crosslinked silicone elastomer is prepared by utilizing polydimethylsiloxane as the host material and disulfide bond-containing silane as the crosslinking agent. By taking advantage of the sunlight activated metathesis of the included disulfide bonds, the crosslinked silicone elastomer can be self-healed and recycled for multiple times without any catalyst under sunshine. A series of verification experiments are carried out to reveal the underlying mechanism and the dynamicity of the silicone. Because the key raw materials are commercially available and the manufacturing follows common industrial procedures, the outcomes of this proof-of-concept study may be easily applied in practice. The simple and eco-friendly method would help to increase reliability and durability of silicone products and minimize wasting of resources.