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Bioinspired Functional Gradients for Toughness Augmentation in Synthetic Polymer Systems
Author(s) -
Chorazewicz Kayetan,
Sundrani Sameer,
Ahn B. Kollbe
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.201800134
Subject(s) - materials science , toughness , ultimate tensile strength , composite material , elastomer , stiffness , polymer , modulus , acrylate , elongation , deflection (physics) , copolymer , physics , optics
In nature, load‐bearing polymeric materials that do not present significant trade‐off between elongation and elastic modulus are often found, but are rare in synthetic systems. One mechanism for emulating these natural systems is with functionally graded materials (FGMs). The development of synthetic FGM systems with varying moduli gradient using tuned poly(meth)acrylate multilayers is shown. Such localized tuning of crosslink density is shown as a mechanism to increase rigidity without significant compromise to maximum strain. The toughest FGM shows 43% higher tensile strength and 9% higher stiffness than copolymer elastomers with similar maximum strain (ε max ≈ 110%), increasing toughness by 25%. These improved tensile mechanical properties can be due to beneficial interlayer crack deflection and delamination. This gradient approach provides potential to improve toughness of various load‐bearing polymeric materials.