Ultratough and ultrastiff elastomers formed by inorganic ionic molecular linkers

YH Sang and WF Fang and KR Kong and HH Pan and YT Guo and XY He and X Yu and SF Song and RK Tang and ZM Liu, MATTER, 8, 102193 (2025).

DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2025.102193

Producing both stiff and tough elastomers is crucial in engineering fields. Although diverse cross-linking strategies have been developed to toughen polymers, the co-enhancement of stiffness and toughness is still a contradiction. Here, we developed inorganic ionic molecular linkers (IMLs) by using stable calcium phosphate oligomer as an example for the bottom-up synthesis of butyl acrylate-acrylic acid-based elastomers; these elastomers showed ultrahigh stiffness and toughness compared to elastomers by other cross-linkers. The molecular-size effect of inorganic ionic molecular linkers allows them to connect multiple polymer chains to enhance stiffness, while simultaneously enabling dynamic interchain cross-linking during deformation to achieve high toughness. Furthermore, these inorganic ionic molecular linkers were readily applicable in other commercial elastomers fortheir co- enhancement of both stiffness and toughness. This strategy produced an alternative molecular cross-linker by interdisciplinary understanding of inorganic and polymer chemistry, pushing forward both theory and technology for the manufacture of high-performance elastomers.

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