The conventional vulcanization process applied to elastomers is irreversible and hinders therefore their useful recycling. We demonstrate here that natural rubber can be reversibly crosslinked via the Diels-Alder coupling of furan and maleimide moieties. The furan-modified natural rubber used in this strategy was also exploited to bind it to maleimide-modified nanocellulose, thus generating a covalently crosslinked composite of these two renewable polymers.
Keywords: Aminomaleimide; Diels-Alder reaction; Furans; Recycling; TEMPO-oxidized nanocellulose; Thermal reversibility.
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