Reversible Polymer-Metal Mechanical Transitions Enabled by Electrochemical Modulation.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41817011.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c05837.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
The mechanical properties of materials, e.g., elastic modulus and hardness, are important for many engineering applications. Here, we introduce a hierarchically ordered structure (HOS) polymer system that exhibits exceptionally large, reversible changes in mechanical behavior upon electrochemical lithiation and delithiation. Full lithiation of the HOS polymer induces a substantial mechanical transition from polymer-like to metal-like attributes, yielding a 10-fold increase in elastic modulus and a 3-fold increase in hardness, with values comparable to those of aluminum. Upon removal of Li<sup>+</sup> ions, the elastic modulus and hardness return to nearly pristine polymer levels, and this transformation remains highly repeatable over many electrochemical cycles. Reversible transitions between polymer-like and metal-like mechanical behaviors offer a new pathway for engineering materials for applications that require tunable mechanical properties, such as soft robotics and stimuli-responsive systems.