Soft three-dimensional network materials with rational bio-mimetic designs.

ABSTRACT: Many biological tissues offer J-shaped stress-strain responses, since their microstructures exhibit a three-dimensional (3D) network construction of curvy filamentary structures that lead to a bending-to-stretching transition of the deformation mode under an external tension. The development of artificial 3D soft materials and device systems that can reproduce the nonlinear, anisotropic mechanical properties of biological tissues remains challenging. Here we report a class of soft 3D network materials that can offer defect-insensitive, nonlinear mechanical responses closely matched with those of biological tissues. This material system exploits a lattice configuration with different 3D topologies, where 3D helical microstructures that connect the lattice nodes serve as building blocks of t

SUBMITTER: Yan D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7055264 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature