ABSTRACT Gels dissipate energy through the viscoelastic behavior of polymers within the glass transition zone. The narrow frequency range for energy dissipation limits their ability to effectively mitigate high‐velocity impacts. Here, we introduce an approach to fabricate ultrastrong and highly energy‐dissipative ionogels through the low dissociation rates of halometallate ionic liquids (ILs). This fabrication approach relies on the synergistic integration of two key components: entangled polymer domains that impart toughness, and ionic bonds derived from ILs with low dissociation rates. This synergism not only slows the kinetic motion of the matrix polymers but also enables effective reinforcement of the ionogels across a broad frequency spectrum. The highly compressible ionogels exhibited a compressive strength of 3.4 GPa at 99% strain without fragmentation. Over a wide frequency range (0.74–10 8 rad s −1 ), the ionogels demonstrate efficient energy dissipation, as indicated by their monotonically increasing loss factors tan δ (ranging from 1 to 3.5). Ionogels also exhibit high shock velocities (strain rate: 500–5000 s −1 ) impact resistance. This innovative synthesis strategy for ionogels introduces a promising avenue for the development of next‐generation impact‐resistant materials.
Zhang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.