Cartilage-inspired smart anti-impact gel with highly stable and tailored properties

Smart anti-impact materials are desirable for personal protection and industrial security. However, they often suffer from poor perfor-mance 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 polyboro-siloxane 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.

Automated summary

Inspired by the excellent energy absorption capability of cartilage structure, researchers have developed a dual-network impact-hardening gel with high malleability, self-healing properties, rate dependence, and toughness. The gel exhibits outstanding protective ability and can be combined with Kevlar fabric and foam to form a flexible anti-impact composite.