We propose a strategy to develop a colorless, transparent, and tough composite elastomer inspired by the cornea, which is the transparent front portion of the eyeball. The composite elastomer, in which 34 vol % hard silica particles with a uniform particle size are dispersed as a filler in a low-crosslinking polymer network exhibits a fracture energy that is ∼13.5 times higher than that of a system without the silica particles. This strategy also makes the elastomer optically transparent, because the light scattered by each silica particle that forms an ordered structure in the polymer network is cancelled by interference. This research may pave the way for the development of optically transparent and durable materials for applications such as advanced medical devices and soft robots.

中文翻译：

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受角膜启发的高度透明且坚韧的填充复合弹性体

我们提出一种策略，以角膜（即眼球的透明前部）为灵感，开发无色，透明且坚韧的复合弹性体。在低交联聚合物网络中，分散有34％（体积）均匀粒径的硬质二氧化硅颗粒作为填料的复合弹性体的断裂能比不含二氧化硅颗粒的体系高约13.5倍。这种策略还使弹性体具有光学透明性，因为被聚合物网络中形成有序结构的每个二氧化硅颗粒所散射的光会被干扰抵消。这项研究可能为开发诸如高级医疗设备和软机器人之类的光学透明耐用材料铺平道路。