Designing Extremely Robust Soft Wet Adhesives by Exploiting Molecular-Scale Reversible Crosslinks and Macro-Scale Instabilities

该奖项支持基础研究，为软湿胶粘剂的开发提供所需的知识，以实现极高的机械强度和韧性。在自然界中，柔软潮湿的材料可以与其他材料形成极其坚韧和牢固的粘合。例子包括岩石上的贻贝斑块，骨骼上的肌腱，以及表皮和真皮之间的粘合。相比之下，大多数合成软湿胶粘剂的力学性能远远低于天然胶粘剂，这严重阻碍了它们的潜在应用和创新。以软湿材料为基础的坚固合成胶粘剂将在医疗保健、生物医学、化工和海洋工业中得到广泛应用。例如，用于无缝合外科手术胶的坚韧生物粘合剂可以避免传统缝合中的许多固有并发症和缺点，而柔软的湿式粘合剂也可以用作各种医疗设备的生物相容性涂层，如神经探头、生物传感器和金属假体。因此，这项研究的结果将有利于美国的经济和社会。这项研究还包括一项协调努力，从科学和工程领域中代表性较低的人群中招募学生，进入令人兴奋的软材料力学新领域。软质湿胶广泛存在于自然界中，具有广泛的工程和技术应用。然而，现有的合成软湿胶粘剂机械强度和韧性较低，严重限制了它们的应用。本研究旨在利用软湿材料的分子尺度可逆交联性和宏观力学不稳定性，设计出极具韧性和强韧性的软湿胶粘剂。该研究小组将开发一个多尺度模型来了解分子尺度的可逆交联度和宏观尺度能量耗散之间的关系，构建相图来阐明受限软胶粘合剂中不同机械不稳定性模式的形成和相互作用，并为软湿胶粘剂的设计开发一套指南，以通过利用可逆交联度和不稳定性来实现非凡的界面性能。

This award supports fundamental research to provide the needed knowledge for the development of soft wet adhesives to achieve extremely high mechanical strength and toughness. In nature, soft wet materials can form extremely tough and strong bonding to other materials. Examples include mussel plaques on rocks, tendons on bones, and bonding between the epidermis and dermis. In contrast, the mechanical properties of most synthetic soft wet adhesives are much inferior to their natural counterparts, which severely hampers their potential applications and innovations. Robust synthetic adhesives based on soft wet materials will find diverse applications in healthcare, biomedical, chemical and marine industries. For instance, tough bio-adhesives for suture-less surgical glues can avoid many inherent complications and drawbacks in conventional suturing, and soft wet adhesives can also be used as biocompatible coatings of various medical devices such as neural probes, bio-sensors and metallic prosthesis. Therefore, results from this research will benefit the U.S. economy and society. This research also includes a coordinated effort to recruit students from underrepresented populations in science and engineering to enter into the exciting new field of mechanics of soft materials.Soft wet adhesives are widely found in nature and have broad engineering and technological applications. However, existing synthetic soft wet adhesives are severely limited by their low mechanical strength and toughness. This research is to design extremely tough and strong soft wet adhesives by exploiting the molecular-scale reversible crosslinks and macro-scale mechanical instabilities in soft wet materials. The research team will develop a multi-scale model to understand the relationships between molecular-scale reversible crosslinks and macro-scale energy dissipation, construct a phase diagram to elucidate the formation and interaction among different modes of mechanical instabilities in constrained soft adhesives, and develop a set of guidelines for the design of the soft wet adhesives to achieve extraordinary interfacial properties by exploiting reversible crosslinks and instabilities.