Work

Ultrastrong eutectogels engineered via integrated mechanical training in molecular and structural engineering

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Ultrastrong gels possess generally ultrahigh modulus and strength yet exhibit limited stretchability owing to hardening and embrittlement accompanied by reinforcement. This dilemma is overcome here by using hyperhysteresis-mediated mechanical training that hyperhysteresis allows structural retardation to prevent the structural recovery of network after training, resulting in simply single pre-stretching training. This training strategy introduces deep eutectic solvent into polyvinyl alcohol hydrogels to achieve hyperhysteresis via hydrogen bonding nanocrystals on molecular engineering, performs single pre-stretching training to produce hierarchical nanofibrils on structural engineering, and fabricates chemically cross-linked second network to enable stretchability. The resultant eutectogels display exceptional mechanical performances with enormous fracture strength (85.2 MPa), Young’s modulus (98 MPa) and work of rupture (130.6 MJ m−3), which compare favorably to those of previous gels. The presented strategy is generalizable to other solvents and polymer for engineering ultrastrong organogels, and further inspires advanced fabrication technologies for force-induced self-reinforcement materials. Ultrastrong gels possess generally high modulus and strength yet limited stretchability. Here, the authors overcome this by using a hyperhysteresis-mediated mechanical training strategy to engineer eutectogels displaying improved mechanical performances.

Source: Nature Communications

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57800-y