Characterization of Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Forests Grown on Stainless Steel Surfaces.

Vertically aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) forests are a particularly interesting class of nanomaterials, because they combine multifunctional properties, such as high energy absorption, compressive strength, recoverability, and super-hydrophobicity with light weight. These characteristics make them suitable for application as coating, protective layers, and antifouling substrates for metallic pipelines and blades. Direct growth of CNT forests on metals offers the possibility of transferring the tunable CNT functionalities directly onto the desired substrates.

3D Plate-Lattices: An Emerging Class of Low-Density Metamaterial Exhibiting Optimal Isotropic Stiffness.

In lightweight engineering, there is a constant quest for low-density materials featuring high mass-specific stiffness and strength. Additively-manufactured metamaterials are particularly promising candidates as the controlled introduction of porosity allows for tailoring their density while activating strengthening size-effects at the nano- and microstructural level. Here, plate-lattices are conceived by placing plates along the closest-packed planes of crystal structures.