CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui Province 230026, P.R. China

Department of Chemistry, University of California, 1102 Natural Sciences II, Irvine, California 92697-2025, United States

ACS Nano, 2015, 9 (1), pp 271-278

DOI: 10.1021/nn506960f

Publication Date (Web): December 31, 2014

*Address correspondence to zgwang2@ustc.edu.cn, zguan@uci.edu.

Congrats to Zhongkai!

Zhigang Wang etc. feel grateful to the Journal Editor and the three reviewers for their understanding to our idea and work, for their support, for their precious review comments, and finally for their encouragements to our continuous working on the project.

Human skin exhibits highly nonlinear elastic properties that are essential to its physiological functions. It is soft at low strain but stiff at high strain, thereby protecting internal organs and tissues from mechanical trauma. However, to date, the development of materials to mimic the unique mechanical properties of human skin is still a great challenge. Here we report a bioinspired design of nanostructured elastomers combining two abundant plant-based biopolymers, stiff cellulose and elastic polyisoprene (natural rubber), to mimic the mechanical properties of human skin. The nanostructured elastomers show highly nonlinear mechanical properties closely mimicking that of human skin. Importantly, the mechanical properties of these nanostructured elastomers can be tuned by adjusting cellulose content, providing the opportunity to synthesize materials that mimic the mechanical properties of different types of skins. Given the simplicity, efficiency, and tunability, this design may provide a promising strategy for creating artificial skin for both general mechanical and biomedical applications.