Development of Smart Self-Healing Nitrile Gloves using Dynamic Supramolecular Chemistry

Responsible material use is increasingly recognized as a crucial aspect in maintaining balance of the planet’s sustainability triple bottom line, particularly in manufacturing. This thesis encompasses the development of a sustainably reinforced smart self-healing synthetic rubber composite for reusable glove applications. The formulated material was able to recover its strength substantially over multiple damage cycles based on dynamic intrinsic healing mechanisms. A functional self-healing glove prototype was also fabricated using a retrofitted dipping method. This innovation ultimately aims to reduce glove waste during manufacturing and at product end-of-life, benefiting fields of healthcare, sanitary, chemical handling, personal protection and heavy industries.