Skeletal High-Strength Nanoporous Copper and Metamaterials: The Hakka Tulou Design Heritage.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40751550.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1002/adma.202503701 and PMC identifier 12651096.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Nanoporous metals (NPMs) are pivotal for next-generation technologies, yet their inherent mechanical fragility has long hindered practical implementation. Drawing inspiration from the ingenious architecture of the ancient Hakka Tulou walls, a novel class of nanoporous copper (NPCu) materials-skeletal NPCu-is developed to overcome this limitation. To achieve this, we leverage the principles of solidification and dealloying in alloy design to engineer a unique two-phase precursor alloy microstructure. This microstructure comprises a strong, ductile, non-dealloyable skeletal phase (minor phase) and a readily dealloyable principal phase. Upon dealloying, the precursor transforms into skeletal NPCu, achieving exceptional yield strength (200.4 ± 15.2 MPa)-significantly surpassing that of conventional NPMs. Extending this design concept, we fabricate skeletal NPCu lattice metamaterials that surpass the Gibson-Ashby strength model predictions by 800%, while offering an outstanding specific surface area (27.6 ± 1.2 m<sup>2</sup> g<sup>-1</sup>) that enhances multifunctionality. By marrying ancient architectural wisdom with modern materials science, this innovation unlocks the vast potential of advanced NPMs for applications spanning energy, aerospace, and beyond.