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The fluid dynamics of a bubble collapsing near an elastic or viscoelastic material is coupled with the mechanical response of the material. We apply a multiphase fluid–solid coupled computational model to simulate the collapse of an air bubble in water induced by an ultrasound shock wave, near different types of materials including metals (e.g. aluminium), polymers (e.g. polyurea), minerals (e.g. gypsum), glass and foams. We characterize the two-way fluid–material interaction by examining the fluid pressure and velocity fields, the time history of bubble shape and volume and the maximum tensile and shear stresses produced in the material. We show that the ratio of the longitudinal acoustic impedance of the material compared to that of the ambient fluid, $Z/Z_0$ , plays a significant role. When $Z/Z_0<1$ , the material reflects the compressive front of the incident shock into a tensile wave. The reflected tensile wave impinges on the bubble and decelerates its collapse. As a result, the collapse produces a liquid jet, but not necessarily a shock wave. When $Z/Z_0>1$ , the reflected wave is compressive and accelerates the bubble's collapse, leading to the emission of a shock wave whose amplitude increases linearly with $\log (Z/Z_0)$ , and can be much higher than the amplitude of the incident shock. The reflection of this emitted shock wave impinges on the bubble during its rebound. It reduces the speed of the bubble's rebound and the velocity of the liquid jet. Furthermore, we show that, for a set of materials with $Z/Z_0\in [0.04, 10.8]$ , the effect of acoustic impedance on the bubble's collapse time and minimum volume can be captured using phenomenological models constructed based on the solution of Rayleigh–Plesset equation.