Highly Transparent and Tough Filler Composite Elastomer Inspired by the Cornea

Kenta Watanabe; Eiji Miwa; Fumio Asai; Takahiro Seki; Kenji Urayama; Tomotaka Nakatani; So Fujinami; Taiki Hoshino; Masaki Takata; Chang Liu; Koichi Mayumi; Kohzo Ito; Yukikazu Takeoka

doi:10.1021/acsmaterialslett.9b00520

Highly Transparent and Tough Filler Composite Elastomer Inspired by the Cornea

Kenta Watanabe, Eiji Miwa, Fumio Asai, Takahiro Seki, Kenji Urayama, Tomotaka Nakatani, So Fujinami, Taiki Hoshino, Masaki Takata, Chang Liu, Koichi Mayumi, Kohzo Ito, Yukikazu Takeoka

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We propose a strategy to develop a colorless, transparent, and tough composite elastomer inspired by the cornea, which is the transparent front portion of the eyeball. The composite elastomer, in which 34 vol »% hard silica particles with a uniform particle size are dispersed as a filler in a low-crosslinking polymer network exhibits a fracture energy that is ∼13.5 times higher than that of a system without the silica particles. This strategy also makes the elastomer optically transparent, because the light scattered by each silica particle that forms an ordered structure in the polymer network is cancelled by interference. This research may pave the way for the development of optically transparent and durable materials for applications such as advanced medical devices and soft robots.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	325-330
Number of pages	6
Journal	ACS Materials Letters
Volume	2
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmaterialslett.9b00520
Publication status	Published - 2020 Apr 6

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Chemical Engineering(all)
Biomedical Engineering
Materials Science(all)

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10.1021/acsmaterialslett.9b00520

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title = "Highly Transparent and Tough Filler Composite Elastomer Inspired by the Cornea",

abstract = "We propose a strategy to develop a colorless, transparent, and tough composite elastomer inspired by the cornea, which is the transparent front portion of the eyeball. The composite elastomer, in which 34 vol »% hard silica particles with a uniform particle size are dispersed as a filler in a low-crosslinking polymer network exhibits a fracture energy that is ∼13.5 times higher than that of a system without the silica particles. This strategy also makes the elastomer optically transparent, because the light scattered by each silica particle that forms an ordered structure in the polymer network is cancelled by interference. This research may pave the way for the development of optically transparent and durable materials for applications such as advanced medical devices and soft robots.",

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T1 - Highly Transparent and Tough Filler Composite Elastomer Inspired by the Cornea

AU - Watanabe, Kenta

AU - Miwa, Eiji

AU - Asai, Fumio

AU - Seki, Takahiro

AU - Urayama, Kenji

AU - Nakatani, Tomotaka

AU - Fujinami, So

AU - Hoshino, Taiki

AU - Takata, Masaki

AU - Liu, Chang

AU - Mayumi, Koichi

AU - Ito, Kohzo

AU - Takeoka, Yukikazu

PY - 2020/4/6

Y1 - 2020/4/6

N2 - We propose a strategy to develop a colorless, transparent, and tough composite elastomer inspired by the cornea, which is the transparent front portion of the eyeball. The composite elastomer, in which 34 vol »% hard silica particles with a uniform particle size are dispersed as a filler in a low-crosslinking polymer network exhibits a fracture energy that is ∼13.5 times higher than that of a system without the silica particles. This strategy also makes the elastomer optically transparent, because the light scattered by each silica particle that forms an ordered structure in the polymer network is cancelled by interference. This research may pave the way for the development of optically transparent and durable materials for applications such as advanced medical devices and soft robots.

AB - We propose a strategy to develop a colorless, transparent, and tough composite elastomer inspired by the cornea, which is the transparent front portion of the eyeball. The composite elastomer, in which 34 vol »% hard silica particles with a uniform particle size are dispersed as a filler in a low-crosslinking polymer network exhibits a fracture energy that is ∼13.5 times higher than that of a system without the silica particles. This strategy also makes the elastomer optically transparent, because the light scattered by each silica particle that forms an ordered structure in the polymer network is cancelled by interference. This research may pave the way for the development of optically transparent and durable materials for applications such as advanced medical devices and soft robots.

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Highly Transparent and Tough Filler Composite Elastomer Inspired by the Cornea

Abstract

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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