Metallic <i>Mimosa pudica</i>: A 3D biomimetic buckling structure made of metallic glasses.

Abstract

Metallic <i>Mimosa pudica</i>, a three-dimensional (3D) biomimetic structure made of metallic glass, is formed via laser patterning: Blooming, closing, and reversing of the metallic <i>M. pudica</i> can be controlled by an applied magnetic field or by manual reshaping. An array of laser-crystallized lines is written in a metallic glass ribbon. Changes in density and/or elastic modulus due to laser patterning result in an appropriate size mismatch between the shrunken crystalline regions and the glassy matrix. The residual stress and elastic distortion energy make the composite material to buckle within the elastic limit and to obey the minimum elastic energy criterion. This work not only provides a programming route for constructing buckling structures of metallic glasses but also provides clues for the study of materials with automatic functions desired in robotics, electronic devices, and, especially, medical devices in the field of medicine, such as vessel scaffolds and vascular filters, which require contactless expansion and contraction functions.