Mechanically Robust Elastomers Enabled by a Facile Interfacial Interactions‐Driven Sacrificial Network

Abstract

Strength and toughness are usually mutually exclusive for materials. The sacrificial bond strategy is used to address the trade‐off between strength and toughness. However, the complex construction process of sacrificial network limits the application of sacrificial network. This work develops a facile strategy to construct an interfacial interactions‐driven sacrificial network. The authors' group finds that there are the interfacial interactions between arginines (A) aggregates and molecular chains. Such interfacial interactions result in the mechanical properties of samples having a strong dependence on extension rates, which shows that A aggregates construct a network structure by interfacial interactions. The interfacial interactions between A aggregates and chains improve the strength of samples; while the A aggregate network driven by interfacial interactions preferentially ruptures to dissipate large energy for the improvement of fracture toughness, which can be considered as a sacrificial network. Therefore, their designed elastomers have both high strength and high toughness. This work provides an easier strategy for the construction of sacrificial networks, which can promote the industrial application of sacrificial networks in elastomer materials.

Recent Progress in Double Network Elastomers: One Plus One is Greater Than Two

“…They construct a 3D segregated filler network using a simple latex mixing method and prove that the interconnected filler network prefers to break during deformation, which is more efficient in energy dissipation compared with the dispersed filler network. Luo and Liao et al [101,102] find that there is also a naturally sacrificial network in natural rubber, which is composed of nonrubber components (NRC) (proteins, phospholipids, etc.) gathered by molecular interactions.…”

“…Luo and Liao et al. [ 101,102 ] find that there is also a naturally sacrificial network in natural rubber, which is composed of nonrubber components (NRC) (proteins, phospholipids, etc.) gathered by molecular interactions.…”

Toward Mechanically Robust Crosslinked Elastomers through Phase Transfer Agent Tuning the Solubility of Zn2+ in the Organic Phase

“…To highlight the importance of phase transfer agent to properties of crosslinked elastomers, we compare tensile strength, tear strength, and elongation at break among this work and the elastomers with different accelerators in Figure 4 c,d. The data of elastomers with different accelerators are from the previous works, containing N-cyclohexyl-2-benzothiazolesulfenamide (CZ) [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 ], diphenyl guanidine (D) [ 49 , 50 ], dibenzothiazyl disulfide (DM) [ 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 ], 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (M) [ 2 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 ], N-tert-butylbenzothiazole-2-sulphenamide (NS) [ 30 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 ], and tetra methyl thiuram disulfide (TMTD) [ 30...…”

Dynamically Cross-Linked Polyolefins via Hydrogen Bonds: Tough yet Soft Thermoplastic Elastomers with High Elastic Recovery

“…These include the following: (i) block copolymers in which hard segments crystallize at the operating temperature and act as physical cross-links to hold the extensible soft blocks, − (ii) stereoblock copolymers, in which a change in tacticity provides crystalline and amorphous segments, , (iii) graft copolymers that contain a crystalline (or glassy) phase grafted to a rubbery backbone, , (iv) branched polymers whose properties are strongly dictated by the overall branching content and branch-type distribution, − and (v) heterogeneous (co)­polymers that contain long enough chain segments that crystallize at large deformation and act as knots for reinforcement . Besides, more recently, P-TPE vitrimers with dynamic cross-links have been develop to balance the benefits of thermosets and thermoplastics. − Vitrimers are covalently cross-linked polymers that can behave as traditional thermosets under certain conditions, but the network topologies rearranged repeatedly after the activation of dynamic exchange interactions. , Beyond the benefit of sacrificial covalent cross-links, noncovalent supramolecular interactions (i.e., H-bonds, ionic interactions, π–π interactions, host–guest complexation, and metal–ligand coordination) have been also largely employed to design adaptive bonds. − Dynamic H-bond cross-links endow the polymer high toughness because they could reform after breaking, thus redistributing the stress during deformation, without losing the polymer extensibility. − However, some major restrictions of H-bond motifs are as follows: (i) H-bonds usually require long times to be restored after breaking, , (ii) H-bond clusters make the polymers brittle, − and (iii) the weak H-bonds break to dissipate strain energy while constraining the polymer chains mobility, which is detrimental to the elastic recovery . Although remarkable achievements have been gained via sacrificial bonds, improvements in both robustness and extensibility have rarely been demonstrated.…”