Toughening mystery of natural rubber deciphered by double network incorporating hierarchical structures.

ABSTRACT: As an indispensible material for modern society, natural rubber possesses peerless mechanical properties such as strength and toughness over its artificial analogues, which remains a mystery. Intensive experimental and theoretical investigations have revealed the self-enhancement of natural rubber due to strain-induced crystallization. However a rigorous model on the self-enhancement, elucidating natural rubber's extraordinary mechanical properties, is obscured by deficient understanding of the local hierarchical structure under strain. With spatially resolved synchrotron radiation micro-beam scanning X-ray diffraction we discover weak oscillation in distributions of strain-induced crystallinity around crack tip for stretched natural rubber film, demonstrating a soft-hard double network structure. The fracture energy enhancement factor obtained by utilizing the double network model indicates an enhancement of toughness by 3 orders. It's proposed that upon stretching spontaneously developed double network structures integrating hierarchy at multi length-scale in natural rubber play an essential role in its remarkable mechanical performance.

SUBMITTER: Zhou W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4266860 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature