Professor Yang Lu and his collaborators used thermostat metal strips to create a novel temperature-responsive metamaterial with exceptional shape-morphing abilities. Achieving 70-80% of designed strain in just 5 seconds of heating, these mechanical metamaterials surpass others by exhibiting a thermal strain of around 30%. The actuation capacity of the metal strips exceeds 26 times their own weight, showcasing remarkable efficiency. Notably, the highly programmable thermal deformation enables a tuneable bandgap range of 3847 to 40,000 hertz. These advancements hold great potential for applications such as soft actuators, soft robots, vibration isolation in hypersonic vehicles, and precision instruments. The breakthrough paves the way for transformative developments of multifunctional mechanical metamaterials used in engineering and technologies.
The research was recently published in Science Advances on Dec 4 2024.
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