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Updated: Oct 1, 2026

Synthesis of Programmable Main-chain Liquid-crystalline Elastomers Using a Two-stage Thiol-acrylate Reaction
Published on: January 19, 2016
Strong and crack-tolerant elastomers via geometrically confined H-bonding semicarbazides
Rujuan Li1, Shuyao Pan1, Zhiming Liu1
1Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials of Ministry of Education, Frontiers Science Center for New Organic Matter, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.
Abstract:
The development of high-performance elastomers that are simultaneously strong, crack-tolerant, and wear-resistant remains a persistent challenge. Herein, we design bio-inspired semicarbazide chain extender featuring high-density hydrogen-bonding sites to synthesize poly(urethane-urea) (PUU). The use of two such extenders creates geometric confinement that promotes ordered H-bonding arrays, which synergistically enhances the mechanical performance. The resulting PUU-HI elastomer exhibits a nanoscale-ordered phase-separated structure and maximized H-bonding, achieving a tensile strength of 120.2 MPa, toughness of 400.5 MJ m-3 and true fracture stress of 1.3 GPa, even surpassing spider silk. The architecture additionally delivers high crack tolerance, fatigue resistance, and high wear resistance, making it ideal for stable, long-term used triboelectric nanogenerator interfaces. Solid-state NMR reveals the geometric-confinement-induced ordered and high-density H-bonding structure in hard domain for efficient energy dissipation. By designing tailored H-bonding motifs and amplifying supramolecular interactions via geometric confinement, this work offers a promising strategy for developing mechanically robust and durable elastomers.
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