Polymers is a major topic for all exam boards. They are used in composite materials to form components of a huge range of products, from sports equipment to passenger aircraft. There are various ways that they can be designed to self-heal, i.e. to repair themselves if damaged, such as employing the Diels-Alder reaction (which couples an alkene and a diene) to connect monomers. This reaction is a chemical equilibrium and so can work in either direction.
Polymers are everywhere in the modern world. They can be natural, such as carbohydrates (e.g. cellulose, the major component of plants), proteins (e.g. silk) and natural rubber (see CHEMISTRY REVIEW, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 2–5); or they can be synthetic. Some synthetic polymers can repair themselves if damaged and recover their physical properties.
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