Bio-inspired material-structure-function integrated additive manufacturing of Al-based metamaterials with surpassing energy absorption.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41237224.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aea0430 and PMC identifier 12617464.
- 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
Additively manufactured mechanical metamaterials exhibit extraordinary physical and mechanical performance. However, achieving a balance between lightweight design, strength, and energy absorption remains challenging. Here, we develop a material-structure-function integrated strategy to additively manufacture lightweight metamaterials. Specifically, strong yet ductile aluminum (Al) alloy with heterogeneous grain was developed to print hero shrew-inspired damage-resistant metamaterials. The synergistic interplay between microscale strengthening and mesoscale architectural stress regulation leads to a cross-scale coordination mechanism, which effectively bridges material heterogeneities and structural hierarchy for multilevel energy dissipation. Such a strategy enables our metamaterials to maintain a stable stress platform during deformation. Hence, our metamaterials display an excellent combination of ultralightweight (0.91 ± 0.01 g/cm<sup>3</sup>), high relative yield strength (17.0 ± 0.7%), and unprecedented specific energy absorption (39.1 ± 0.7 J/g), surpassing most metallic metamaterials. This facile concept expands the design space for lightweight metamaterials and demonstrates scalable strategies to realize the cross-scale coordination mechanism required by multifunction, showing transformative potential in mass production for sustainable engineering solutions.