Materials both Tough and Soft

Tough elastomers are created by adapting an approach previously used for hydrogels. [Also see Report by Ducrot et al. ] Hydrogels and elastomers are soft materials that have similar network structures but very different affinities to water. Consisting mostly of water, hydrogels resemble biological s...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2014-04, Vol.344 (6180), p.161-162
Main Author: Ping Gong, Jian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Elastomers
Hydrogels
Materials science
PERSPECTIVES
Polymers
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Tough elastomers are created by adapting an approach previously used for hydrogels. [Also see Report by Ducrot et al. ] Hydrogels and elastomers are soft materials that have similar network structures but very different affinities to water. Consisting mostly of water, hydrogels resemble biological soft tissues and have great potential for use in biomedical applications; they tend to be very brittle, like fragile jellies. Elastomers are formed of nonhydrated polymer networks and are widely used as load-dispersing and shock-absorbing materials. They are stretchable but break easily along a notch. On page 186 of this issue, Ducrot et al. ( 1 ) show that the toughness of elastomers can be improved substantially by combining two different network materials, an approach previously applied to hydrogels.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1252389