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arXiv · 2203.17131

Hydroelastomers: soft, tough, highly swelling composites

Simon Moser·Yanxia Feng·Oncay Yasa·Stefanie Heyden·Michael Kessler·Esther Amstad·Eric R. Dufresne·Robert K. Katzschmann·Robert W. Style
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Abstract

Inspired by the cellular design of plant tissue, we present a new approach to make versatile, tough, highly water-swelling composites. We embed highly swelling hydrogel particles inside tough, water-permeable, elastomeric matrices. The resulting composites, which we call \emph{hydroelastomers}, show little softening as they swell, and have excellent fracture properties that match those of the best-performing, tough hydrogels. Our composites are straightforward to fabricate, based on commercial materials, and can easily be molded or extruded to form shapes with complex swelling geometries. Furthermore, there is a large design space available for making hydroelastomers, since one can use any hydrogel as the dispersed phase in the composite, including hydrogels with stimuli-responsiveness. These features should make hydroelastomers excellent candidates for use in soft robotics and swelling-based actuation, or as shape-morphing materials, while also being useful as hydrogel replacements in a wide range of other fields.

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Simon Moser, Yanxia Feng, Oncay Yasa, Stefanie Heyden, Michael Kessler, Esther Amstad, Eric R. Dufresne, Robert K. Katzschmann, Robert W. Style. 2022-03-31. Hydroelastomers: soft, tough, highly swelling composites. https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.17131

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