Abstract
The elastic storage and release of mechanical energy has been key to many developments throughout the history of mankind. Resilience, absent hysteresis, has been an elusive goal to achieve, particularly at large deformations. Using a low-crosslink-density polyacrylamide hydrogel at 96% water content having hyperbranched silica nanoparticles (HBSPs) as the major junction points, a hysteresis-free material is realized. The fatigue-free characteristic of these composite hydrogels is evidenced by the invariance of the stress–strain curves at strain ratios of 4, even after 5000 cycles. At a strain ratio of 7, only a 1.3% hysteresis is observed. A markedly increased strain-ratio-at-break of 11.5 is observed. The unique attributes of these resilient hydrogels are manifested in the high-fidelity detection of dynamic deformations under cyclic loading over a broad range of frequencies, difficult to achieve with other materials.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2108243 |
| Journal | Advanced Materials |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 17 2022 |
Funding
X.M., T.P.R., and D.Q. conceived the experiments; X.M., C.D., W.B., C.H., Y.K., and D.Q. performed the experiments; X.M., T.P.R., and D.Q. did the data analysis; X.M., Y.Q., T.P.R., and D.Q. wrote the manuscript. W.B.'s contribution is based upon work supported by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT‐Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (project nos. 51773209, 21704106) and the National Basic Research Program (2017YFC1103300). T.P.R. was supported by the Army Research Office under contract W911NF-17-1-0003. This research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and China Spallation Neutron Source, Dongguan. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (project nos. 51773209, 21704106) and the National Basic Research Program (2017YFC1103300). T.P.R. was supported by the Army Research Office under contract W911NF‐17‐1‐0003. This research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and China Spallation Neutron Source, Dongguan.
Keywords
- hysteresis-free materials
- nanoparticle composites
- polymer hydrogels
- resilient hydrogels