Enabling Design of Advanced Elastomer with Bioinspired Metal–Oxygen Coordination

It poses a huge challenge to expand the application gallery of rubbers into advanced smart materials and achieve the reinforcement simultaneously. In the present work, inspired by the metal–ligand complexations of mussel byssus, ferric ion was introduced into an oxygen-abundant rubber network to create additional metal–oxygen coordination cross-links. Such complexation has been revealed to be highly efficient in enhancing the strength and toughness of the rubbers. Significantly, such complexation also enables the functionalization of the rubber into highly damping or excellent multishape memory materials. We envision that the present work offers an efficient yet facile way of creating advanced elastomers based on industrially available diene-based rubber.