posted on 2024-03-08, 20:33authored byYin-Dong Zhang, Holger Merlitz, Chen-Xu Wu, Xue-Zheng Cao
To achieve high mechanical strength in combination with
large toughness
is among the most challenging tasks for the design of functional supramolecular
materials that persist in strong and rapid deformation. Based on recent
progress in nanotechnology, including the design of synthetic self-propelling
nanoparticles (NPs) and increasingly available experimental methods
to synthesize noncovalently bonded supramolecular chains (NBSCs),
we present a simulation model of a supramolecular gel doped with passive
and active NPs. We then demonstrate how an activity-induced decoupling
of the NP diffusion from the chain relaxation facilitates a modification
of the linear and nonlinear rheological properties of gels made of
NBSCs. We analyze the static and dynamical behaviors of these NBSCs
and perform a Rouse mode analysis to determine the relaxation spectra
and to quantify the stress relaxation moduli and demonstrate that
activated NPs induce a structural relaxation of cross-linked and entangled
NBSCs. The rheological improvements triggered by such dynamic tuning
offer interesting pathways for a further expansion of the practical
applications of supramolecular materials in emerging fields, ranging
from the aerospace and automobile industries to the design of safe
and energy-efficient solid-state batteries.