How Supertough Gels Break

Abstract

Fracture of highly stretched materials challenges our view of how things break. We directly visualize rupture of tough double-network gels at >50% strain. During fracture, crack tip shapes obey a x similar to y(1.6) power law, in contrast to the parabolic profile observed in low-strain cracks. A new length scale l emerges from the power law; we show that l scales directly with the stored elastic energy and diverges when the crack velocity approaches the shear wave speed. Our results show that double-network gels undergo brittle fracture and provide a testing ground for large-strain fracture mechanics.