Extended Data Fig. 10: Comparison of toughness, stiffness, and orthogonality of the two in dilute single-network gels.

a) End-linked PEG networks of varying cross-link density, including TetraPEG (A₄ + B₄) other A₂ + B₄ networks (like this work) and other mechanophore networks (Wang et al.¹⁹). TCB gels are marked by stars. b) Pendant-linked single-network gels of varied chemistry and topology, including polysaccharide, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), polyacrylamide (PAam), and slide-ring gels, compared to this work. Details for shown data can be found in Supplementary Table 6. Gels in (a) and (b) are \(88\pm 4 \%\) solvent by weight, are made up of only a single network, and do not involve multistep fabrication or fillers. We note that highly entangled PAam gels¹¹ do fit these criteria and achieve high stiffness and toughness; these materials have been omitted simply to improve readability of the other data. Highly entangled PAam gels within this concentration range can achieve tearing energies between 73 J/m² and 1.5 kJ/m², alongside Young’s moduli of 190 kPa to 100 kPa, respectively, depending on water content during gelation. c) Tearing energy vs. modulus for several material families normalized by the tearing energy and modulus of the toughest sample of each dataset, illustrating differing correlations between these properties.