Highly Transparent and Colorless Self-Healing Polyacrylate Coatings Based on Diels–Alder Chemistry

The efficient integration of reversible polymer networks into acrylate-based polymeric materials is of peculiar interest for the development of coatings that combine high transparency with self-healing ability. In this work, reversible networks are obtained by reacting a series of linear copolymers of furfuryl methacrylate with aliphatic bismaleimides through Diels–Alder (DA) reaction between furan and maleimide moieties. Owing to dynamic crosslinking, the obtained coatings exhibit thermal reversibility, as determined by differential scanning calorimetry and dissolution experiments. Furthermore, upon heating over the retro-DA temperature, an excellent recovery of mechanically induced surface damages proves successful thermal remendability. Compared to previous reports on DA-based acrylate networks, the presented thermally responsive coatings exhibit outstanding transparency and absence of color, as a result of an accurate choice of suitable monomeric precursors. In addition, a pronounced hydrophobic behavior and excellent adhesive properties make the proposed material particularly suitable for optical applications.