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Ultra-stretchable and crack-resistant nonpolar organogels
Zhenkai Huang1,2, Jianping Peng1,3, Wei Zhang1
1State Key Lab of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional and Intelligent Hybrid Materials and Devices, Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Energy and Information Polymer Materials, South China Advanced Institute for Soft Matter Science and Technology, School of Emergent Soft Matter, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.
Nature Communications
|January 26, 2026
Summary
Researchers developed a novel nonpolar organogel using an inorganic nanowire-polymer hybrid network. This ultra-stretchable material effectively absorbs and solidifies organic liquids, showing promise for environmental cleanup applications.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Polymer Chemistry
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Gelation in nonpolar media is thermodynamically challenging due to low polarity and weak intermolecular forces.
- Existing organogels struggle to match the mechanical performance of hydrogels for absorbing nonpolar liquids.
- Overcoming the elasticity-strength trade-off in organogel design is a significant hurdle.
Purpose of the Study:
- To engineer an ultra-stretchable and crack-resistant nonpolar organogel.
- To overcome the inherent limitations of nonpolar media in gelation processes.
- To develop a material capable of absorbing diverse nonpolar organic liquids with high mechanical strength.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of an inorganic nanowire-polymer hybrid network.
- Testing the absorption capacity for various nonpolar organic liquids.
- Characterization of mechanical properties, including tensile strength, elongation, fracture energy, and fatigue resistance.
- Investigating dynamic strain-induced nanowire alignment.
Main Results:
- The developed organogel exhibits ultra-stretchability (breaking elongation up to 1600%) and high strength (over 1.5 MPa).
- It achieves high mass absorption ratios (>35:1) for diverse nonpolar organic liquids.
- The material demonstrates exceptional crack and fatigue resistance due to strain-induced nanowire alignment.
- Achieved fracture energy up to 1.7 kJ/m² and fatigue threshold up to 95.3 J/m².
Conclusions:
- The inorganic nanowire-polymer hybrid network successfully overcomes the elasticity-strength trade-off in nonpolar organogels.
- The resulting organogels show excellent performance in absorbing and solidifying nonpolar liquids.
- These advanced organogels are highly suitable for applications like spilled petrol recovery and nonpolar liquid solidification.
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