Spiderweb-inspired, transparent, impact-absorbing composite

Transparent materials with high impact absorption are required for many safety-critical engineering systems. Existing transparent tough composites have increased impact resistance but often fail catastrophically because of poor impact absorption. We propose a transparent impact-absorbing composite that reproduces the toughening mechanism involving sacrificial bonds and hidden lengths in spider silk. Our material consists of an elastomer matrix and an instability-assisted, 3D-printed, bidirectional fabric of microstructured fibers with sacrificial bonds and alternating loops. Under impact, the hidden loops unfold after bond breaking and matrix cracking, resisting impactor penetration with graceful failure. The large-scale plastic deformation of the unfolding loops significantly increases energy dissipation and leads to hysteresis of 95.6% (dissipated energy/total absorbed energy × 100%), minimizing the released elastic energy and reducing the rebounding damage. Our approach opens a new avenue for designing and manufacturing transparent high-energy-absorbing composites for impact protection applications.