Solvent-free bulk soft material with low-temperature tolerance: Transparency, flexibility, stretchability, and adhesion

Designing and manufacturing reliable and practicable transparent materials that can withstand low-temperature poses significant challenge. In this study, a range of transparent materials with excellent low-temperature resistance were constructed through the synergistic dynamical/non-covalent polymerization of two organic compounds, dodecyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium bromide (DB) and thioctic acid (TA). DB can effectively suppress the crystallization tendency of poly[TA] segments, while TA offers solvent-free polymerization behavior and thermal processing ability. Consequently, the non-covalently linked poly[TA-DB] exhibits high transparency (91.1 ± 3%), strong adhesion (7.91 ± 0.42 MPa), and remarkable stretchability (1705.73 ± 27.05%) in the low-temperature range (−40 ∼ −65 °C) or in cryogenic liquid (−40 °C). The design strategy used in this study offers a supramolecular approach for constructing transparent materials with the low-temperature applicability and practicality.