Fracture, fatigue, and friction of polymers in which entanglements greatly outnumber cross-links

Junsoo Kim, Guogao Zhang, Meixuanzi Shi, Zhigang Suo*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

556 Scopus citations

Abstract

In gels and elastomers, the role of entanglements on deformation has been studied, but their effects on fracture, fatigue, and friction are less well understood. In this study, we synthesized polymers in which entanglements greatly outnumber cross-links. The dense entanglements enable transmission of tension in a polymer chain along its length and to many other chains. The sparse cross-links prevent the polymer chains from disentangling. These polymers have high toughness, strength, and fatigue resistance. After submersion in water, the polymers swell to equilibrium, and the resulting hydrogels have low hysteresis, low friction, and high wear resistance.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)212-216
Number of pages5
JournalScience
Volume374
Issue number6564
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 8 2021

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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