Stiff and stretchy? Topological control of hydrogen-bonding clusters for toughening elastomers

The stiffness-extensibility trade-off of elastomers is a long-standing challenge that has historically limited improving the combined mechanical performance of soft matter—traditionally we have thought of improving one at the expense of the other. In a recent issue of Matter, Zheng et al. revealed that mastering the distribution/topology of hydrogen-bonding clusters in dry polymer networks can enhance stiffness and extensibility at the same time. This new design principle significantly advances the community's understanding of how to tailor materials properties, overcomes limitations of prior approaches, and is directly relevant to widely used synthetic elastomers.