Bioinspired Functional Gradients for Toughness Augmentation in Synthetic Polymer Systems

Abstract

In nature, load‐bearing polymeric materials that do not present significant trade‐off between elongation and elastic modulus are often found, but are rare in synthetic systems. One mechanism for emulating these natural systems is with functionally graded materials (FGMs). The development of synthetic FGM systems with varying moduli gradient using tuned poly(meth)acrylate multilayers is shown. Such localized tuning of crosslink density is shown as a mechanism to increase rigidity without significant compromise to maximum strain. The toughest FGM shows 43% higher tensile strength and 9% higher stiffness than copolymer elastomers with similar maximum strain (εmax ≈ 110%), increasing toughness by 25%. These improved tensile mechanical properties can be due to beneficial interlayer crack deflection and delamination. This gradient approach provides potential to improve toughness of various load‐bearing polymeric materials.

Electric field‐driven preparation of elastomer/plastic nanoparticles gradient films with enhanced damping property

“…[13][14][15] In the second group, the gradient structure was built up by layer-by-layer technology 16,17 including laser sintering, 18 plasma sintering, 19-21 3D printing, 22,23 fused deposition, 24 compression molding, 25 and solution coating. 26,27 However, none of these methods are versatile as they are limited to specific characteristics of components used. For the methods in the first group, the formation of the gradient structure was driven by the system's interfacial tension or gravity of the components.…”

“…In the first group, PGMs were produced by using homogeneous suspension or polymer solution that normally contains components of different densities or hydrophobicities . In the second group, the gradient structure was built up by layer‐by‐layer technology including laser sintering, plasma sintering, 3D printing, fused deposition, compression molding, and solution coating . However, none of these methods are versatile as they are limited to specific characteristics of components used.…”