Development of a bio-based self-healing waterborne polyurethane with dynamic phenol-carbamate network for enhanced antimicrobial and antiseptic performance

One of the major challenges in expanding the uses of polymer materials is the development of thermally driven, multifunctional, self-healing water polyurethanes with superior mechanical properties. By adding nano-inorganic fillers and incorporating phenol-carbamate bonds into the molecular chains, a self-healing waterborne polyurethane with strong mechanical properties as well as antibacterial, and antiseptic properties was created. Given that tannic acid (TA) can create an isocyanate-group-containing phenol-carbamate network, the resulting TA-based water polyurethane (TWPU) had great mechanical properties and superior thermal stability with tensile strength of 31.9 MPa and elongation at break of 1406.4%. The amount of dynamic phenol-urethane linkages in the polyurethane backbone can also be adjusted and controlled to achieve excellent self-healing efficiency. The coating's anti-corrosion properties were good when the waterborne polyurethane was added to ZnO modified GO. Furthermore, the coating exhibited strong antibacterial capabilities due to the incorporation of nano-zinc oxide. In this study, we create an environmentally friendly waterborne polyurethane that is antibacterial, antiseptic, and self-healing using a straightforward and efficient design approach.