Abstract:The mechanical properties of ordinary materials degrade substantially with reduced density, due to the bending of their structural elements under applied load. We report a class of micro-architected materials that maintain a nearly constant stiffness per unit mass density, even at ultra-low density. This performance derives from a network of nearly isotropic microscale unit cells with high structural connectivity and nanoscale features, whose structural members are designed to carry loads in tension or compression. Production of these microlattices, with constituent materials ranging from polymers to metals and ceramics, is made possible by using projection microstereolithography, an additive micromanufacturing technique, combined with nanoscale coating and postprocessing. We found that these materials exhibit ultra-stiff properties across more than three orders of magnitude in density, regardless of the constituent material. One Sentence Summary:We report a class of micro-architected materials that change their stiffness linearly with reduced density.Main Text: Nature has found a way to achieve mechanically efficient materials by evolving cellular structures. Natural cellular materials, including honeycomb (1) (wood, cork) and foamlike structures, such as trabecular bone (2), plant parenchyma (3), and sponge (4), combine low weight with superior mechanical properties. For example, lightweight balsa has a stiffness-toweight ratio comparable to that of steel along the axial loading direction (5). Inspired by these naturally occurring cellular structures, manmade lightweight cellular materials fabricated from a wide array of solid constituents are desirable for a broad range of applications including structural components (6, 7), energy absorption (8, 9), heat exchange (10, 11), catalyst supports (12), filtration (13,14), and biomaterials (15,16). However, the degradation in mechanical properties can be drastic as density decreases (17,18). A number of examples among recently reported low-density materials include graphene elastomers (19), metallic micro-lattices (20), carbon nanotube foams (21), and silica aerogels (22,23). For instance, the Young's modulus of low-density silica aerogels (22, 23) decreases to 10 kPa (10 -5 % of bulk ) at a density of less than 10 mg/cm 3 (< 0.5% of bulk). This loss of mechanical performance is because most natural and engineered cellular solids with random porosity, particularly at relative densities less than 0.1%, exhibit a quadratic or stronger scaling relationship between Young's modulus and density as well as between strength and density. Namely, E/E s ~ (/ s ) n and  y  ys ~ (/ s ) n , where E is Young's modulus,  is density,  y is yield strength, and s denotes the respective bulk value of the solid constituent material property. The power n of the scaling relationship between relative material density and the relative mechanical property depends on the material's microarchitecture. Conventional cellular foam materials with stochastic porosity are known to...

Graphene is a two-dimensional material that offers a unique combination of low density, exceptional mechanical properties, large surface area and excellent electrical conductivity. Recent progress has produced bulk 3D assemblies of graphene, such as graphene aerogels, but they possess purely stochastic porous networks, which limit their performance compared with the potential of an engineered architecture. Here we report the fabrication of periodic graphene aerogel microlattices, possessing an engineered architecture via a 3D printing technique known as direct ink writing. The 3D printed graphene aerogels are lightweight, highly conductive and exhibit supercompressibility (up to 90% compressive strain). Moreover, the Young's moduli of the 3D printed graphene aerogels show an order of magnitude improvement over bulk graphene materials with comparable geometric density and possess large surface areas. Adapting the 3D printing technique to graphene aerogels realizes the possibility of fabricating a myriad of complex aerogel architectures for a broad range of applications.

The extraordinary mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of carbon nanotubes have prompted intense research into a wide range of applications in structural materials, electronics, chemical processing and energy management. Attempts have been made to develop advanced engineering materials with improved or novel properties through the incorporation of carbon nanotubes in selected matrices (polymers, metals and ceramics). But the use of carbon nanotubes to reinforce ceramic composites has not been very successful; for example, in alumina-based systems only a 24% increase in toughness has been obtained so far. Here we demonstrate their potential use in reinforcing nanocrystalline ceramics. We have fabricated fully dense nanocomposites of single-wall carbon nanotubes with nanocrystalline alumina (Al2O3) matrix at sintering temperatures as low as 1,150 degrees C by spark-plasma sintering. A fracture toughness of 9.7 MPa m 1/2, nearly three times that of pure nanocrystalline alumina, can be achieved.

Graphene is an atomically thin, two-dimensional (2D) carbon material that offers a unique combination of low density, exceptional mechanical properties, thermal stability, large surface area, and excellent electrical conductivity. Recent progress has resulted in macro-assemblies of graphene, such as bulk graphene aerogels for a variety of applications. However, these three-dimensional (3D) graphenes exhibit physicochemical property attenuation compared to their 2D building blocks because of one-fold composition and tortuous, stochastic porous networks. These limitations can be offset by developing a graphene composite material with an engineered porous architecture. Here, we report the fabrication of 3D periodic graphene composite aerogel microlattices for supercapacitor applications, via a 3D printing technique known as direct-ink writing. The key factor in developing these novel aerogels is creating an extrudable graphene oxide-based composite ink and modifying the 3D printing method to accommodate aerogel processing. The 3D-printed graphene composite aerogel (3D-GCA) electrodes are lightweight, highly conductive, and exhibit excellent electrochemical properties. In particular, the supercapacitors using these 3D-GCA electrodes with thicknesses on the order of millimeters display exceptional capacitive retention (ca. 90% from 0.5 to 10 A·g(-1)) and power densities (>4 kW·kg(-1)) that equal or exceed those of reported devices made with electrodes 10-100 times thinner. This work provides an example of how 3D-printed materials, such as graphene aerogels, can significantly expand the design space for fabricating high-performance and fully integrable energy storage devices optimized for a broad range of applications.

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