文章基本信息

标题：Toughening mystery of natural rubber deciphered by double network incorporating hierarchical structures
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作者：Weiming Zhou ; Xiangyang Li ; Jie Lu 等
期刊名称：Scientific Reports
电子版ISSN：2045-2322
出版年度：2014
卷号：4
DOI：10.1038/srep07502
出版社：Springer Nature
摘要：As an indispensible material for modern society, natural rubber possesses peerless mechanical properties such as strength and toughness over its artificial analogues, which remains a mystery. Intensive experimental and theoretical investigations have revealed the self-enhancement of natural rubber due to strain-induced crystallization. However a rigorous model on the self-enhancement, elucidating natural rubber's extraordinary mechanical properties, is obscured by deficient understanding of the local hierarchical structure under strain. With spatially resolved synchrotron radiation micro-beam scanning X-ray diffraction we discover weak oscillation in distributions of strain-induced crystallinity around crack tip for stretched natural rubber film, demonstrating a soft-hard double network structure. The fracture energy enhancement factor obtained by utilizing the double network model indicates an enhancement of toughness by 3 orders. It's proposed that upon stretching spontaneously developed double network structures integrating hierarchy at multi length-scale in natural rubber play an essential role in its remarkable mechanical performance.