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Correction: Errors matter when measuring Poisson's ratio of nearly incompressible elastomers

Robert D. Nedoluha, Majed N. Saadawi and Christopher W. Barney*
School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, 250 S Forge St, Akron, OH 44325, USA. E-mail: barneyc@uakron.edu; Tel: +1(330)972-4297

Received 23rd December 2025 , Accepted 23rd December 2025

First published on 9th January 2026


Abstract

Correction for ‘Errors matter when measuring Poisson's ratio of nearly incompressible elastomers’ by Robert D. Nedoluha et al., Soft Matter, 2025, 21, 6689–6696, https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SM00535C.


The authors regret that in the discussion of the results of ref. 28 (“Facile determination of the Poisson's ratio and Young's modulus of polyacrylamide gels and polydimethylsiloxane” by A. M. Smith, D. G. Inocencio, B. M. Pardi, A. Gopinath and R. C. A. Eguiluz, ACS Appl. Polym. Mater., 2024, 6, 2405–2416) the method of calculating Poisson's ratio was mistakenly identified as combining the Young's modulus and shear modulus. In fact, Smith et al. calculated Poisson's ratio through an optical strain gauge analysis that was applied to uniaxial extension measurements. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by this error. The interpretation of the results presented in this article relies upon the propagation of error and cumulative error arguments made in the discussion section and remains unaffected by this correction.

Consequently, sections of the text, and Fig. 1 and Table S1 have been updated to correct this mis-characterisation, with the changes detailed below.

The following text in the Introduction on page 6690 should be updated to remove ref. 28 as detailed below.

“This category includes techniques such as pressurization19–22 to measure K combined with separate measurements of either E or the shear modulus μ,23–25 radially confined compression (RCC)2,8,24–27 to measure K combined with a separate measurement of E, and an emerging trend28,29 of combining measurements of E and μ to infer ν.” This sentence should read, “This category includes techniques such as pressurization19–22 to measure K combined with separate measurements of either E or the shear modulus μ,23–25 radially confined compression (RCC)2,8,24–27 to measure K combined with a separate measurement of E, and an emerging trend29 of combining measurements of E and μ to infer ν.”

“Notably, the reported values for inferring v from E and μ have all been generated from measurements in different setups (e.g. combining data from tensile tests and rheology28 or tensile tests and lap shear tests29) and have not been attempted in a single setup.” This sentence should read, “Notably, the reported values for inferring v from E and μ have all been generated from measurements in different setups (e.g. tensile tests and lap shear tests29) and have not been attempted in a single setup.”

The following text in Section 4 on page 6693 should be updated to remove ref. 28 as detailed below.

“Performing such measurements have recently been proposed as a method to meaningfully quantify v of nearly incompressible elastomers.28,29” This sentence should read, “Performing such measurements have recently been proposed as a method to meaningfully quantify v of nearly incompressible elastomers.29

The following text in Section 4 on page 6694 should be updated to remove ref. 28 as detailed below.

“In this work, inferring v from E and μ is given its best chance of working by performing both moduli measurements on the same sample instead of combining measurements from different setups as was done in previous works.28,29” This sentence should read, “In this work, inferring v from E and μ is given its best chance of working by performing both moduli measurements on the same sample instead of combining measurements from different setups as was done in previous works.29

The following text in Section 5 on page 6695 should be updated to remove ref. 28 as detailed below.

“Notably, it only takes a cumulative error of 10% to see an apparent value of v = 0.35 which likely explains some of the more extreme values reported in the literature.28” This sentence should read, “Notably, it only takes a cumulative error of 10% to see an apparent value of v = 0.35.”

Fig. 1 on page 6690 should be replaced with the following revised Fig. 1 to refer to Smith et al.'s measurements as optical strain gauge measurements.


image file: d5sm90215k-f1.tif
Fig. 1 Plot showing 0.5 ¬ Δν vs. Δν from literature data for RCC,7,8,24,25 pressurization,23–25 DIC,9,11,12 strain gauge analysis,28,30 dilatometry,17,30 and inferred from E and μ.29

Accordingly, Table S1 in the original Supplementary Information should be replaced with the following revised Table S1 to change Smith et al.'s method description to Optical Strain Gauge. The original Supplementary Information has been updated.

 

Table S1 Table showing the compiled literature data used in the first figure of the main text

Source Material Method Further analysis to estimate error? ν Δν
Rightmire1 White rubber 35 Pressurization Yes 0.49991 0.00001
Rightmire1 Sample 52 Pressurization Yes 0.49984 0.00001
Rightmire1 Paracril 48 Pressurization Yes 0.49985 0.00001
Rightmire1 Neoprene 74 Pressurization Yes 0.49964 0.00001
Rightmire1 Sample 50 Pressurization Yes 0.49981 0.00001
Rightmire1 Sample 77 Pressurization Yes 0.49947 0.00001
Rightmire1 Paracril 72 Pressurization Yes 0.49953 0.00001
Rightmire1 Urethane 83 Pressurization Yes 0.49963 0.00001
Rightmire1 Sample 100 Pressurization Yes 0.49881 0.00001
Holownia10 NR 0.173 RCC No 0.49986 0.0001
Holownia10 NR 40.4 RCC No 0.4997 0.0001
Holownia10 NR 60.09 RCC No 0.49961 0.0001
Holownia10 NR 80.1 RCC No 0.49943 0.0001
Holownia10 NR 100.1 RCC No 0.49905 0.0001
Holownia10 NR 121.1 RCC No 0.499879 0.0001
Fishman and Machmer2 Adeprene 70 DJC pressurization Yes 0.49969 0.00005
Fishman and Machmer2 Adeprene 70 VCD pressurization Yes 0.49969 0.00004
Fishman and Machmer2 Adeprene 70 RCC Yes 0.4997 0.00003
Fishman and Machmer2 Adeprene 90 VCD pressurization Yes 0.4987 0.0004
Fishman and Machmer2 Adeprene 90 RCC Yes 0.4986 0.0004
Stanojevic and Lewis5 NR Pressurization Yes 0.49979 0.00002
Stanojevic and Lewis5 NR RCC Yes 0.49968 0.00002
Laufer et al.6 Asbestos filled polybutadiene Dilatometry No 0.4993 0.00012
Barney et al.7 Silicone RCC Yes 0.4998 0.00005
Barney et al.7 Silicone RCC Yes 0.49995 0.00001
Barney et al.7 Silicone RCC Yes 0.49998 0.00001
Barney et al.7 Silicone RCC Yes 0.49999 0.00001
Barney et al.7 Silicone RCC Yes 0.4999 0.0001
Barney et al.7 Silicone RCC Yes 0.49995 0.00001
Barney et al.7 Silicone RCC Yes 0.49998 0.00001
Barney et al.7 Silicone RCC Yes 0.49999 0.00001
T.L. Smith8 Filled polyurethane Dilatometry Yes 0.446 0.02
T.L. Smith8 Filled polyurethane Strain gauge Yes 0.47 0.01
Pritchard et al.11 Homogeneous CNT in PDMS DIC No 0.492 0.004
Pritchard et al.11 Heterogeneous CNT in PDMS DIC No 0.479 0.046
Pritchard et al.11 PDMS DIC No 0.5 0.002
Smith et al.9 Polyacrylamide Optical strain gauge Yes 0.3055 0.0165
Smith et al.9 Polyacrylamide Optical strain gauge Yes 0.342 0.046
Smith et al.9 Polyacrylamide Optical strain gauge Yes 0.374 0.013
Smith et al.9 PDMS Optical strain gauge Yes 0.314 0.032
Smith et al.9 PDMS Optical strain gauge Yes 0.417 0.108
Smith et al.9 PDMS Optical strain gauge Yes 0.462 0.05
Pal and Bhattacharyya12 PDMS Shear and Young's modulus No 0.44 0.05
Farfan-Cabrera et al.13 EPDM DIC No 0.516 0.06
Dogru et al.14 PDMS DIC No 0.491 0.006

The Royal Society of Chemistry apologises for these errors and any consequent inconvenience to authors and readers.


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