Why cutting is easier than tearing elastomers
Abstract Tearing tough soft solids such as rubbers, leather or meat is much harder than cutting them with a sharp blade. To understand why, we use samples labeled with mechanically sensitive fluorophores to investigate cutting and fracture behavior in PDMS elastomers and quantify the extent of bond...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58483-1 |
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| author | Donghao Zhao Alex Cartier Tetsuharu Narita Frederic Lechenault Costantino Creton Matteo Ciccotti |
| author_facet | Donghao Zhao Alex Cartier Tetsuharu Narita Frederic Lechenault Costantino Creton Matteo Ciccotti |
| author_sort | Donghao Zhao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Tearing tough soft solids such as rubbers, leather or meat is much harder than cutting them with a sharp blade. To understand why, we use samples labeled with mechanically sensitive fluorophores to investigate cutting and fracture behavior in PDMS elastomers and quantify the extent of bond scission resulting from cutting pre-stretched samples. Our findings reveal that stretch-induced cracks produce significant deformation, bond scission and blunting near the crack tip, requiring more energy to propagate. In contrast, using blades reduces the amount of stretching and blunting required for crack propagation, resulting in a lower fracture energy. The measured linear correlation between fracture energy and the areal density of broken chains clarifies the relationship between pre-stretching, blunting, and molecular damage. These multi-scale insights demonstrate the key differences between fracture and cutting mechanics of soft materials, allowing to optimize engineering applications, such as rubber and food processing, energy-efficient recycling, biomedical and surgical devices, protective equipment and sports gear. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-32b4de3381514bf2b217dc0a28569f9f |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-32b4de3381514bf2b217dc0a28569f9f2025-08-20T02:25:40ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-04-011611810.1038/s41467-025-58483-1Why cutting is easier than tearing elastomersDonghao Zhao0Alex Cartier1Tetsuharu Narita2Frederic Lechenault3Costantino Creton4Matteo Ciccotti5Laboratoire de Sciences et Ingénierie de la Matière Molle, ESPCI Paris, CNRS, PSL UniversityLaboratoire de Sciences et Ingénierie de la Matière Molle, ESPCI Paris, CNRS, PSL UniversityLaboratoire de Sciences et Ingénierie de la Matière Molle, ESPCI Paris, CNRS, PSL UniversityLaboratoire de Physique de l’École normale supérieure, ENS, CNRS, PSL University, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris CitéLaboratoire de Sciences et Ingénierie de la Matière Molle, ESPCI Paris, CNRS, PSL UniversityLaboratoire de Sciences et Ingénierie de la Matière Molle, ESPCI Paris, CNRS, PSL UniversityAbstract Tearing tough soft solids such as rubbers, leather or meat is much harder than cutting them with a sharp blade. To understand why, we use samples labeled with mechanically sensitive fluorophores to investigate cutting and fracture behavior in PDMS elastomers and quantify the extent of bond scission resulting from cutting pre-stretched samples. Our findings reveal that stretch-induced cracks produce significant deformation, bond scission and blunting near the crack tip, requiring more energy to propagate. In contrast, using blades reduces the amount of stretching and blunting required for crack propagation, resulting in a lower fracture energy. The measured linear correlation between fracture energy and the areal density of broken chains clarifies the relationship between pre-stretching, blunting, and molecular damage. These multi-scale insights demonstrate the key differences between fracture and cutting mechanics of soft materials, allowing to optimize engineering applications, such as rubber and food processing, energy-efficient recycling, biomedical and surgical devices, protective equipment and sports gear.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58483-1 |
| spellingShingle | Donghao Zhao Alex Cartier Tetsuharu Narita Frederic Lechenault Costantino Creton Matteo Ciccotti Why cutting is easier than tearing elastomers Nature Communications |
| title | Why cutting is easier than tearing elastomers |
| title_full | Why cutting is easier than tearing elastomers |
| title_fullStr | Why cutting is easier than tearing elastomers |
| title_full_unstemmed | Why cutting is easier than tearing elastomers |
| title_short | Why cutting is easier than tearing elastomers |
| title_sort | why cutting is easier than tearing elastomers |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58483-1 |
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