Creation of reconfigurable and multi-functional materials can be achieved by incorporating architecture into material design. In our research, we design and fabricate three-dimensional (3D) nano-architected materials that can exhibit superior and often tunable mechanical, thermal, photonic, electrochemical, and biochemical properties at extremely low mass densities, which renders them useful and enabling in technological applications.
Dominant properties of such meta-materials are driven by their multi-scale hierarchy: from characteristic material microstructure (atoms) to individual constituents (nanometers) to structural components (microns) to overall architectures (millimeters and above).
Our research is focused on the fabrication, synthesis, and characterization of hierarchical materials using additive manufacturing (AM) techniques, as well as on investigating their mechanical, electrochemical, and chemo-mechanical properties as a function of architecture, constituent materials, and microstructural detail.
AM represents a set of processes that fabricate complex 3D structures using a layer-by-layer approach, with some advanced methods attaining nanometer resolution and the creation of unique, multifunctional materials and shapes derived from a photoinitiation-based polymerization of custom-synthesized resins and thermal post-processing.
A type of additive manufacturing, vat polymerization via hydrogel infusion (HIAM), has allowed for using hydrogels as precursors to produce 3D nano- and micro-architected metals and metal oxides, and exploiting their nano-induced material and structural properties.
We describe additive manufacturing via vat polymerization and function-containing chemical synthesis to create 3D nano- and micro-architected metals, ceramics, multifunctional metal oxides, and metal-containing polymer complexes with dynamic bonds, as well as demonstrate their potential in energy storage, microrobotics, and nano- and micro-electronics.
I will describe how the choice of architecture and material can elicit new microstructural orders and induce stimulus-responsive, reconfigurable, and multifunctional response.