Robust self-healing host-guest gels from Magnetocaloric radical polymerization

Given the increasing environmental and energy issues, materials with the ability to repair themselves following damage are highly desirable because this self-healing property can prolong the lifespan of materials and reduce replacement costs. Host-guest assemblies are a powerful approach to create supramolecular materials with versatile functions. Here, a new mode of radical polymerization is demonstrated which is achieved via magnetocaloric effect to fabricate novel host-guest supramolecular gels within 5 min. The resulting gels can repair themselves spontaneously when damaged, without the assistance of any external stimuli, and possess great mechanical strength. Moreover, the Fe ₃O₄-doped supramolecular gels show accelerated self-healing (from 24 h to 3 h) under an applied magnetic field, which is attributed to the synergy between host-guest healing and a magnetocaloric effect. This strategy might open a promising avenue for accelerating the use of host-guest assemblies to rapidly build robust materials. A new magnetocaloric polymerization for the fabrication of novel host-guest supramolecular gels can be performed within 5 minutes. The resulting gels possess a great autonomic healing capability and superior mechanical performance. This work develops a new platform for the rapid fabrication of diverse polymers for extensive applications.