Spider Silk-Inspired High-Damping Liquid Crystal Elastomer Fibers Enabled by Semi-Interpenetrating Networks

Inspired by the β-sheet nanocrystals in natural spider silk, we develop a high-damping polycrystalline-phase liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) fiber enabled by a semi-interpenetrating network. Continuous large-scale fabrication of this crosslinked system is realized using a unique channel-confinement strategy. By innovatively designing the end-group molecular structures of linear polymers, we precisely regulate the liquid-crystal phases within the semi-interpenetrating network fibers. Four distinct liquid-crystal phases are constructed, mimicking the β-sheet nanocrystals of spider silk to enable efficient energy dissipation. The resulting fibers exhibit a high elastic modulus of 47.6 MPa, outstanding toughness of 60.4 MJ m^-3, a high dissipation coefficient of 88.6%, an ultra-broad damping temperature window, a wide damping frequency range, and a strong actuation stress. When woven into damping nets for impact buffering, the nets exhibit a tunable memory recovery time and an exceptionally low dynamic rebound ratio of 5.9%, enabling efficient impact-energy adsorption and secure capture. Overall, this work overcomes the long-standing trade-off among mechanical, actuation performance, and damping capacity of LCEs, and provides a universal strategy for elastomer-based damper design and precise liquid crystal phase control, opening new opportunities for applications in elastomer dampers, artificial muscles, and soft robotic systems.