【Frontiers in HaiChuan Chemical Technology】A research team from Shandong University has made progress in the development of super-tough elastomers with adjustable hardness

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This post was last edited by “Fish Swimming in the Desert” on March 17, 2025, at 17:31. A research team from Shandong University has made progress in the development of ultra-tough elastomers with adjustable hardness. March 17, 2025, 14:07:58. Recently, the research group led by Professor Wang Xu from the Colloidal Materials Engineering and Technology Research Center at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, has achieved a significant breakthrough in the development of ultra-tough thermoplastic elastomers whose hardness can be adjusted. To address the challenge that traditional elastomers find it difficult to achieve both high hardness and high toughness, this team innovatively introduced the \"mixed soft segment\" approach. Building on the super-tough supramolecular poly(urethane-urea) (SPUU) elastomers they had developed earlier, they were able to achieve precise control over the material’s hardness while maintaining excellent toughness. The relevant research findings were published in the internationally renowned journal Advanced Materials (IF = 27.4) under the title “Hybrid Soft Segments Boost the Development of Ultratough Thermoplastic Elastomers with Tunable Hardness”. The corresponding author of the article is Professor Wang Xu and Sun Nan, an assistant researcher at the research center; the first author is Zhang Xingxue, a doctoral student at the research center. Shandong University is the only institution listed as a corresponding author. Hardness is an important indicator of a material’s ability to resist deformation, and it is crucial for the suitability of elastomers. High-hardness elastomers, such as those with a Shore hardness of over 85A, are commonly used to manufacture cushioning materials for aircraft carrier decks and industrial components, while low-hardness elastomers (with a Shore hardness of under 60A) are suitable for shock-absorbing pads and seals. However, traditional methods often sacrifice the toughness of elastomers while increasing their hardness. Currently, researchers mainly use two methods to adjust the hardness of elastomers: one is to modify the ratio of soft to hard segments, and the other is to adjust the molecular weight of the soft segments. However, it is difficult for these methods to maintain good toughness while ensuring high hardness. This indicates that there is still a significant gap in developing methods to adjust hardness without sacrificing toughness. In this context, it becomes particularly important to develop elastomers that are ultra-tough and have adjustable hardness. This work designed SPUU elastomers at the molecular level by selectively copolymerizing polytetramethylether glycols of different molecular weights, enabling these elastomers to cover a wide range of hardnesses while maintaining good toughness. The research results show that the elastomers prepared using this new method have a hardness range of 56A to 95A. Among them, a material with a Shore hardness of up to 86A exhibited a tensile toughness of 819 MJ/m3 and an impact strength of 6.1 MJ/m2, its performance being 2.8 times higher than that of conventional impact-resistant polymer materials. The other soft elastomer, with a Shore hardness of 59A, exhibited a tensile toughness of 786 MJ/m3, as well as excellent damping and anti-slip properties. This research not only achieved breakthroughs in material properties but also optimized the production process. Using basic laboratory equipment, the researchers developed an scalable synthetic production line for manufacturing self-healing and recyclable SPUU elastomers, addressing the high energy consumption issue associated with solvent-based production processes. It is predicted that the global market size for thermoplastic elastomers will reach $35.4 billion by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.6%. The release of these research findings will further promote the use of thermoplastic elastomers in industries such as automotive, construction, and footwear. Dr. Wang Xu’s research group is committed to supporting the strategy of **green, low-carbon, and high-quality development**. It focuses on the controlled synthesis of sustainable supramolecular polymers as well as the study of structure-activity relationships, and has made significant progress in this area. Relevant research papers have been published in journals such as Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Adv. Mater., and CCS Chem. Some of the technological achievements developed have already been put into practical use. The aforementioned research work was funded by the **National Natural Science Foundation and the Shandong Province Outstanding Young Scientists Fund in Natural Sciences. Some of the studies were supported by Li Ning (China) Sports Goods Co., Ltd.