Vitrimers: Current research trends and their emerging applications

Abstract: The development of recyclable plastics is a key research focus in today’s world due to their environmental issues, and non-renewability concerns. Recently, vitrimeric materials have attracted great attention as an exciting class of renewable plastic due to their potential to exhibit strength, durability, and chemical resistance approaching that of traditional thermosets, while exhibiting end of life recyclability. This is due to their chemical structure, as vitrimers possess dynamic covalent crosslinks, which imparts stability while being reprocessable. This review summarizes the latest progress and developing prospects of vitrimeric materials. Special emphasis is given to vitrimer design strategies which paves the way for development of next-generation circular materials. The emerging applications of vitrimers in terms of their properties, including self-healing, malleability, orthogonal processability, and multiple shape memory, will also be discussed.