Elastic Metamaterials For Tear Resistant Textiles

 

In the field of metamaterial design, "the stronger the better" has always been the dominant rule. Metamaterial is a kind of synthetic material with microstructure, which can endow the whole material with excellent performance. However, the pursuit of greater hardness often sacrifices the flexibility of materials. To solve this problem, the team designed a "double network" that combines a hard micro support structure and a softer woven structure. This new material is made of polymer similar to polymethyl methacrylate, which can stretch to more than 4 times its own size without breaking, while other forms of polymer have almost no tensile properties.

This new dual network design is not only applicable to polymers, but also can be used to manufacture elastic ceramics, glass, metal and other materials. These tough and flexible materials can be used to make tear resistant textiles, flexible semiconductors, electronic chip packaging and cell culture scaffolds for tissue repair.

 

The team created this metamaterial by combining two microstructures: one is a rigid grid support, which is composed of struts and trusses; The other is a structure composed of coils, surrounding each strut and truss. These two materials are made of the same acrylic plastic, and are completed at one time using high-precision laser printing technology - two-photon lithography.

 

The team conducted a variety of pressure tests on this new dual network metamaterial, including connecting samples to a nano mechanical press to measure its tensile strength, and recording high-resolution videos to observe its tensile and tear processes. The results show that the new design can stretch to 3 times of its own length, 10 times of the stretching capacity of the traditional design, compared with the traditional lattice pattern metamaterial. In addition, by introducing strategic holes (i.e. "defects") into the material, the stress can be further dispersed, and the elasticity and tear resistance of the material can be improved.

 

This progress marks a major breakthrough in the field of materials science and shows how to optimize the overall performance of materials through the design of microstructure.