Cartilage-inspired smart anti-impact gel with highly stable and tailored properties
Jianfeng Cheng, Zhipeng Zhang, Ke Liu, Chunfeng Ma, Guangzhao Zhang
Abstract
Smart anti-impact materials are desirable for personal protection and industrial security. However, they often suffer from poor performance control and inherent stability issues. Here, inspired by the excellent energy absorption of cartilage structure, we develop a dual-network impact-hardening gel composed of dynamic polyborosiloxane and entangled polyethylene glycol networks. By optimizing the topology and composition of the dual network, the bioinspired gel has high malleability, self-healing properties, rate dependence, and toughness. Particularly, the gel exhibits ultrahigh stability, holding its network structure and shear-stiffening behavior after exposure to air or even soaking in water. The gel exhibits an outstanding protective ability (reducing the impact force by 80.2% of control) compared with common materials including foam, plastic, rubber, wood, and steel. Moreover, the gel exhibits good versatility, which can be combined with Kevlar fabric and foam to form a flexible anti-impact composite. The cartilage-inspired dual-network gel may fuel the evolution of anti-impact devices.