SEAS researchers have developed a multiscale approach that allows particle-reinforced rubber to bear high loads and resist crack growth over repeated use. Above, cracks grow in the left sample while ...

Rubber! It starts out as a goopy material harvested from special trees, and is then processed into a resilient, flexible material used for innumerable important purposes. In the vast majority of ...

HIRATSUKA, Japan—Yokohama Rubber Co. (YRC) has developed a "highly crack-resistant" rubber material, made from nanoparticle-based polymers, which does not require additives such as organic solvents ...

Materials scientists in the U.S. have just given natural rubber a major upgrade by developing a method to make it stronger and significantly more resistant to cracking, without compromising its ...

A research group from the University of Osaka, ZEN University, and the University of Tokyo has mathematically uncovered the mechanism that causes crack tips to sharpen during the rapid fracture of ...

Natural rubber, one of the world's most widely manufactured biomaterials, has been used by humans for thousands of years. Its resistance to crack growth, however, hasn't improved much for decades.

Researchers have increased the fatigue threshold of particle-reinforced rubber, developing a new, multiscale approach that allows the material to bear high loads and resist crack growth over repeated ...