Mechanism (biology)

Quantum mechanics

Deformation (meteorology)

Polymer chemistry

Materials science

Self-healing

Dissipation

Alternative medicine

Thermodynamics

Physics

Nanotechnology

Self-healing hydrogels

Composite material

Medicine

Pathology

Physical Review Letters

Understanding the energy dissipation mechanism during deformation is essential for the design and application of tough soft materials. We show that, in a class of tough and self-healing polyampholyte hydrogels, a bicontinuous network structure, consisting of a hard network and a soft network, is formed, independently of the chemical details of the hydrogels. Multiscale internal rupture processes, in which the double-network effect plays an important role, are found to be responsible for the large energy dissipation of these hydrogels.

Multiscale Energy Dissipation Mechanism in Tough and Self-Healing Hydrogels