The article titled, "Hemisilicone Elastomers Containing Tactical Defects" was published April 16th, 2026 in ACS, Applied Materials and Interfaces. This paper was co-authored by Shiqi Liu, and Thomas McCarthy*.
Ms. Liu writes: "Taking advantage of the controlled synthesis of hemisilicone (PM2E) polymer, we developed a versatile defect-free structurally uniform polymer network platform, and established a root-cause analysis framework linking rheology and rubber elasticity to network defects. The study offers a clearer and more experimentally grounded way to understand how specific network defects govern elastomer behavior, and I hope it will be of interest to researchers working on polymer networks, soft materials, and structure–property relationships."
"This project has developed over a long period into a comprehensive study of how network defects influence the mechanical behavior of elastomers. I’m particularly proud that I led and executed the entire experimental effort myself, including project design, material synthesis, characterization, and mechanical testing. I’m also very grateful to my advisor Tom McCarthy, my lab mates Shota Fujii, PhD pei bian and very importantly Hanlin Chen, Ph.D. for their guidance and support throughout this work. After investing so much time and effort into this work, it is incredibly rewarding to see it come to fruition."