Spider Silk‐Like Nanodomain Spacings Enable Mechanically Robust and Healable Elastomers with Record‐High Puncture Resistance

ABSTRACT Spider silk is an exceptionally strong, extensible, and tough natural material, the outstanding mechanical properties of which arise from β ‐sheet nanocrystalline protein domains with an average lattice spacing of approximately 10 nm. Herein, inspired by the microstructure of spider silk, a mechanically robust, healable, and reprocessable fluorinated supramolecular poly(urethane‐urea) (F‐SPUU) elastomer with record‐high puncture energy (889 mJ), is reported. The high‐performance stems from the cross‐linking of polytetrahydrofuran chains with in situ‐formed phase‐separated nanodomains (lattice spacing: 10.02 nm), closely resembling that observed in spider silk. These nanodomains consist of dynamic hydrogen bonded arrays and fluorinated phenol–carbamate bonds. They not only serve as rigid nanofillers that reinforce elastomers, but deform and disintegrate under external forces, dissipating energy to improve puncture resistance and damage tolerance, while endowing elastomers with self‐healability and reprocessability due to their reversibility. As a result, the F‐SPUU elastomer exhibits high tensile strength (39.6 MPa), superior fracture energy (90.8 kJ m − 2 ), excellent self‐healing efficiency (99.1%), and low surface energy (41.7 mJ m − 2 ). The tough self‐healing elastomers enable the fabrication of multifunctional triboelectric nanogenerators, offering a molecular engineering strategy for high performance polymers toward cutting‐edge applications.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Small
Published
2026-06-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202514193
Primary Topic
Silk-based biomaterials and applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Spider Silk‐Like Nanodomain Spacings Enable Mechanically Robust and Healable Elastomers with Record‐High Puncture Resistance

Zhengwei You, Y Li, Guangchen Liu, Lu Hu et al.
Small
Silk-based biomaterials and applications
article

Spider Silk‐Like Nanodomain Spacings Enable Mechanically Robust and Healable Elastomers with Record‐High Puncture Resistance

Zhengwei You, Y Li, Guangchen Liu, Lu Hu, Bin Hong, Yuehua Chen, Yujie Jia, Junfen Sun, Ping Liu, Bo Qian
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Spider silk is an exceptionally strong, extensible, and tough natural material, the outstanding mechanical properties of which arise from β ‐sheet nanocrystalline protein domains with an average lattice spacing of approximately 10 nm. Herein, inspired by the microstructure of spider silk, a mechanically robust, healable, and reprocessable fluorinated supramolecular poly(urethane‐urea) (F‐SPUU) elastomer with record‐high puncture energy (889 mJ), is reported. The high‐performance stems from the cross‐linking of polytetrahydrofuran chains with in situ‐formed phase‐separated nanodomains (lattice spacing: 10.02 nm), closely resembling that observed in spider silk. These nanodomains consist of dynamic hydrogen bonded arrays and fluorinated phenol–carbamate bonds. They not only serve as rigid nanofillers that reinforce elastomers, but deform and disintegrate under external forces, dissipating energy to improve puncture resistance and damage tolerance, while endowing elastomers with self‐healability and reprocessability due to their reversibility. As a result, the F‐SPUU elastomer exhibits high tensile strength (39.6 MPa), superior fracture energy (90.8 kJ m − 2 ), excellent self‐healing efficiency (99.1%), and low surface energy (41.7 mJ m − 2 ). The tough self‐healing elastomers enable the fabrication of multifunctional triboelectric nanogenerators, offering a molecular engineering strategy for high performance polymers toward cutting‐edge applications.

Small
Shandong University of Technology (CN), Donghua University (CN), Institute of New Materials (CN), Zhejiang Medicine (China) (CN), Xinjiang University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 13%
Silk-based biomaterials and applications
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.