Hysteresis‐Free Nanoparticle‐Reinforced Hydrogels
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.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jan 02, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1002/adma.202108243
Entities
People
- Changwoo Do
- Chunyong He
- Dong Qiu
- Thomas Paul Russell
- Wim Bras
- Xiaohui Meng
- Yan Qiao
- Yubin Ke
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences
- Institute of High Energy Physics
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- Spallation Neutron Source
- United States Department of Energy
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
- University of Massachusetts