Biomimetic Gradient Bouligand Structure Enhances Impact Resistance of Ceramic-Polymer Composites.

Biological materials relied on multiple synergistic structural design elements typically exhibit excellent comprehensive mechanical properties. Hierarchical incorporation of different biostructural elements into a single artificial material is a promising approach to enhance mechanical properties, but remains challenging. Herein, a biomimetic structural design strategy is proposed by coupling gradient structure with twisted plywood Bouligand structure, attempting to improve the impact resistance of ceramic-polymer composites.

Scalable Manufacturing of Mechanical Robust Bioinspired Ceramic-Resin Composites with Locally Tunable Heterogeneous Structures.

Lightweight structural materials with a unique combination of high stiffness, strength, toughness, and hardness, are highly desired yet challenging to be artificially fabricated. Biological structural materials, on the other hand, ingeniously integrate multiple mutually exclusive mechanical properties together relying on their hierarchically heterogeneous structures bonded with gradient interfaces. Here, a scalable bottom-up approach combining continuous nanofiber-assisted evaporation-induced self-assembly with laminating, pressure-less sintering and resin infiltration is reported to fabricate bioinspired heterogeneous ceramic-resin composites with locally tunable microstructure to fulfill specific properties.

Controlled Desiccation of Preprinted Hydrogel Scaffolds Toward Complex 3D Microarchitectures.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is the key to creating a wide variety of 3D structures with unique and programmable functionalities. Direct ink writing is one of the widely used AM technologies with numerous printable materials. However, the extrude-based method is limited by low fabrication resolution, which is confined to printing macrostructures.

A Highly Compressible and Stretchable Carbon Spring for Smart Vibration and Magnetism Sensors.

Porous carbon materials demonstrate extensive applications for their attractive characteristics. Mechanical flexibility is an essential property guaranteeing their durability. After decades of research efforts, compressive brittleness of porous carbon materials is well resolved.

Bioinspired hierarchical helical nanocomposite macrofibers based on bacterial cellulose nanofibers.

Bio-sourced nanocellulosic materials are promising candidates for spinning high-performance sustainable macrofibers for advanced applications. Various strategies have been pursued to gain nanocellulose-based macrofibers with improved strength. However, nearly all of them have been achieved at the expense of their elongation and toughness.