Cellulose-mediated ionic liquid crystallization enables tough-stiff switchable ionogels.

IF 15.7 1区综合性期刊 Q1 MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES

Nature Communications Pub Date : 2025-10-09 DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-64061-2

Siheng Wang,Huayu Liu,Zhengyang Yu,Xinle Ren,Qi Hua,Mahyar Panahi-Sarmad,Pu Yang,Chuhang Liu,Scott Renneckar,He Liu,Feng Jiang

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Abstract

Nature has inspired to fabricate mechanically switchable materials for applications in various aspects, which is, however, unique but challenging to achieve reversible phase transitions using common ionic liquids in ionogels with ambient temperature-triggered crystallization feature. Here, we develop a tough-stiff switchable ionogel through a reversible solvent crystallization design. Cellulose acts as a chemical regulator, competitively binding with polymers to promote the formation of ionic liquid crystals. This results in a tough ionogel with a bulk toughness of 25.7 MJ m-3 and a fracture toughness of 47.1 kJ m-2, which can switch into a stiff ionogel with a tensile modulus of 134.6 MPa and a compressive modulus of 48.9 MPa. Upon heating, the crystallized ionogel reverts to its unconfined as ionic liquid crystals melt. This phase-driven structural and rigidity transition enables dynamical programming, with rapid, reversible and repeatable shape recovery through heating. Our study demonstrates solvent crystallization in ionogels, offering a strategy for creating intelligent, reconfigurable, and performance-switchable materials with customizable functions.

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纤维素介导的离子液体结晶使可切换的离子凝胶变得坚硬。

自然激发了制造机械可切换材料的灵感，用于各个方面的应用，然而，使用具有环境温度触发结晶特征的电离胶中的普通离子液体实现可逆相变是独特但具有挑战性的。在这里，我们通过可逆溶剂结晶设计开发了一种硬-硬切换离子凝胶。纤维素作为一种化学调节剂，与聚合物竞争性结合，促进离子液晶的形成。得到的硬离子凝胶体韧性为25.7 MJ - m-3，断裂韧性为47.1 kJ - m-2，可转化为拉伸模量为134.6 MPa，压缩模量为48.9 MPa的硬离子凝胶。加热后，结晶的离子凝胶恢复到离子液晶融化时的无约束状态。这种相位驱动的结构和刚度转变实现了动态规划，通过加热实现了快速、可逆和可重复的形状恢复。我们的研究展示了离子凝胶中的溶剂结晶，为创造具有可定制功能的智能、可重构和性能可切换的材料提供了一种策略。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Nature Communications Biological Science Disciplines-

CiteScore

24.90

自引率

2.40%

发文量

6928

审稿时长

3.7 months

期刊介绍： Nature Communications, an open-access journal, publishes high-quality research spanning all areas of the natural sciences. Papers featured in the journal showcase significant advances relevant to specialists in each respective field. With a 2-year impact factor of 16.6 (2022) and a median time of 8 days from submission to the first editorial decision, Nature Communications is committed to rapid dissemination of research findings. As a multidisciplinary journal, it welcomes contributions from biological, health, physical, chemical, Earth, social, mathematical, applied, and engineering sciences, aiming to highlight important breakthroughs within each domain.