Fast Click Crosslinking Bio‐Inspired Adhesives With Tailored Hierarchical High Bonding and Exceptional Versatility

The sluggish room-temperature curing kinetics and low-temperature brittle failure of epoxy resins have long constrained their deployment in extreme environments. Although existing acceleration strategies can enhance curing rates, they are invariably accompanied by issues of intense exothermic heat release, cohesive embrittlement, and toxic emissions. Herein, inspired by mussel adhesive proteins, we present an interfacial-bulk synergistic optimization strategy that leverages triazolinedione-indole (TAD-indole) click chemistry to construct a room-temperature, second-scale curable epoxy adhesive (RTIA). This strategy exploits the TAD-indole cycloaddition reaction to form a high-density C-N crosslinked network, while concurrently endowing the crosslinking sites with dicarbonyl hydrogen bond acceptor functionalities, thereby achieving synchronous enhancement of cohesive strength and interfacial adhesion. The RTIA adhesive exhibits a dry shear strength of 9.42 MPa and retains 3.12 MPa after boiling water treatment, demonstrating stable performance across a broad temperature window from -196°C to 80°C. Notably, the indole moieties confer intrinsic antibacterial properties that effectively suppress bacterial adhesion. This heat-free curing mechanism fundamentally circumvents the adverse effects associated with conventional accelerators, enabling compatibility between instantaneous on-site processing and deployment in extreme environments and thereby establishing a new paradigm for the design of high-performance structural adhesives.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Small
Published
2026-06-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.74255
Primary Topic
Polymer composites and self-healing
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Fast Click Crosslinking Bio‐Inspired Adhesives With Tailored Hierarchical High Bonding and Exceptional Versatility

Guanjun Chang, Tengning Ma, Ying Huang, Yuhong Yang et al.
Small
Polymer composites and self-healing
article

Fast Click Crosslinking Bio‐Inspired Adhesives With Tailored Hierarchical High Bonding and Exceptional Versatility

Guanjun Chang, Tengning Ma, Ying Huang, Yuhong Yang, Shuai Zhang, Li Yang, Jinping Yu, Jing Li
article en

Abstract

The sluggish room-temperature curing kinetics and low-temperature brittle failure of epoxy resins have long constrained their deployment in extreme environments. Although existing acceleration strategies can enhance curing rates, they are invariably accompanied by issues of intense exothermic heat release, cohesive embrittlement, and toxic emissions. Herein, inspired by mussel adhesive proteins, we present an interfacial-bulk synergistic optimization strategy that leverages triazolinedione-indole (TAD-indole) click chemistry to construct a room-temperature, second-scale curable epoxy adhesive (RTIA). This strategy exploits the TAD-indole cycloaddition reaction to form a high-density C-N crosslinked network, while concurrently endowing the crosslinking sites with dicarbonyl hydrogen bond acceptor functionalities, thereby achieving synchronous enhancement of cohesive strength and interfacial adhesion. The RTIA adhesive exhibits a dry shear strength of 9.42 MPa and retains 3.12 MPa after boiling water treatment, demonstrating stable performance across a broad temperature window from -196°C to 80°C. Notably, the indole moieties confer intrinsic antibacterial properties that effectively suppress bacterial adhesion. This heat-free curing mechanism fundamentally circumvents the adverse effects associated with conventional accelerators, enabling compatibility between instantaneous on-site processing and deployment in extreme environments and thereby establishing a new paradigm for the design of high-performance structural adhesives.

Small
Southwest University of Science and Technology (CN), China Academy of Engineering Physics (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Clean water and sanitation
Openalex Percentile: Top 14%
Polymer composites and self-healing
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.