Study the safeguarding performance of shear thickening gel by the mechanoluminescence method

Abstract

This work reports the potential of a full-field, simple-setup and user-interactive method to study the safeguarding property of shear thickening gel (STG) by converting the invisible force/energy information to visible mechanoluminescence. Both the instantaneous intensity and force signals under impact prove the phase change of STG from viscous liquid state to rubbery state. The illumination images, presenting the energy maps, directly visualize the remarkably expanded impact area and phase change induced energy absorption, promoting the understanding of safeguarding mechanisms. The shear thickening property and viscoelastic deformation of STG significantly expand the impact area by almost 5 times, spreading and dissipating force/energy significantly. Moreover, the phase change accompanied by cracks is observed clearly, which is demonstrated to be beneficial to the energy absorption and contributes to the further enlargement of the impact area.