Extended Data Fig. 5: Comparison of mechanical properties of CLCE fibers and a commercial rubber band.

Strain-stress curves for pristine fibres made from each oligomer type, upon increasingly strong normal elongational strain ϵ_xx along the fibre axis until the point of rupture, measuring the corresponding normal stress σ_xx at every step. The lower diagram is an inset of the upper (as indicated by the purple frames and arrow) to highlight the linear regime in which the initial modulus was obtained by fitting. The initial modulus Y₀ is independent of oligomer type, whereas the maximum (breaking) strain \({\epsilon }_{xx}^{max}\) and stress \({\sigma }_{xx}^{max}\) increase monotonically from fibres made from LCO3 to fibres made from LCO1. A comparison with a standard (natural rubber) commercial rubber band (data plotted in black) shows that the CLCE fibre strain-stress behavior is qualitatively similar except near the point of rupture, where Young’s modulus starts to level off just before the CLCE fibres break, in contrast to the rubber band modulus which maintains its second-stage strong rise until breaking.