The stiffness of hydrogels is crucial for their application. Nature’s hydrogels become stiffer as they are strained. This stiffness is not constant but increases when the gel is strained. This stiffening is used, for instance, by cells that actively strain their environment to modulate their function. When optimized, such strain-stiffening materials become extremely sensitive and very responsive to stress. Strain stiffening, however, is unexplored in synthetic gels since the structural design parameters are unknown. Here we uncover how readily tuneable parameters such as concentration, temperature and polymer length impact the stiffening behaviour. Our work also reveals the marginal point, a well-described but never observed, critical point in the gelation process. Around this point, we observe a transition from a low-viscous liquid to an elastic gel upon applying minute stresses. Our experimental work in combination with network theory yields universal design principles for future strain-stiffening materials.

Over the past 50 years, numerous roads towards carbon-based materials have been explored, all of them being paved using mainly one functional group as the brick: acetylene. The acetylene group, or the carbon–carbon triple bond, is one of the oldest and simplest functional groups in chemistry, and although not present in any of the naturally occurring carbon allotropes, it is an essential tool to access their synthetic carbon-rich family. In general, two strategies towards the synthesis of π-conjugated carbon-rich structures can be employed: (a) either the acetylene group serves as a building block to access acetylene-derived structures or (b) it serves as a synthetic tool to provide other, usually benzenoid, structures. The recently discovered copper-catalysed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction, however, represents a new powerful alternative: it transforms the acetylene group into a five-membered heteroaromatic 1H-1,2,3-triazole (triazole) ring and this gives rise to new opportunities. Compared with all-carbon aromatic non-functional rings, the triazole ring possesses three nitrogen atoms and, thus, can serve as a ligand to coordinate metals, or as a hydrogen bond acceptor and donor. This Feature Article summarises examples of using the triazole ring to construct conjugation- and/or function-related heteroaromatic materials, such as tuneable multichromophoric covalent ensembles, macrocyclic receptors or responsive foldamers. These recent examples, which open a new sub-field within organic materials, started to appear only few years ago and represent “a few more bricks” on the road to carbon-rich functional materials.