Fabrication of Tough and Stretchable Hybrid Double-Network Elastomers Using Ionic Dissociation of Polyelectrolyte in Nonaqueous Media

The double-network (DN) structure is a state-of-the-art strategy used for toughening soft materials. The challenge for widespread applications, however, is the difficulty in synthesizing the two interpenetrating networks with contrasting architecture, i.e., one network is brittle and sparse and the other is stretchable and dense. Such structures are formed to toughen hydrogels via two-step sequential synthesis of a highly swellable...