Superior Strong\nand Tough Nacre-Inspired Materials\nby Interlayer Entanglement

Abstract

Natural materials teach that mechanical dissipative interactions\nrelieve the conflict between strength and toughness and enable fabrication\nof strong yet tough artificial materials. Replicating natural nacre\nstructure has yielded rich biomimetic materials; however, stronger\ninterlayer dissipation still waits to be exploited to extend the performance\nlimits of artificial nacre materials. Here, we introduce strong entanglement\nas a new artificial interlayer dissipative mechanism and fabricate\nentangled nacre materials with superior strength and toughness, across\nmolecular to nanoscale nacre structures. The entangled graphene nacre\nfibers achieved high strength of 1.2 GPa and toughness of 47 MJ/m³, and films reached 1.5 GPa and 25 MJ/m³. Experiments\nand simulations reveal that strong entanglement can effectively dissipate\ninterlayer energy to relieve the conflict between strength and toughness,\nacting as natural folded proteins. The strong interlayer entanglement\nopens up a new path for designing stronger and tougher artificial\nmaterials to mimic but surpass natural materials.