ARTICLES

PUBLISHED ONLINE: 18 JULY 2016 | DOI: 10.1038/NMAT4694

Multiscale metallic metamaterials

Xiaoyu Zheng1*, William Smith2, Julie Jackson2, Bryan Moran2, Huachen Cui1, Da Chen1, Jianchao Ye2,
Nicholas Fang3, Nicholas Rodriguez2, Todd Weisgraber2 and Christopher M. Spadaccini2

Materials with three-dimensional micro- and nanoarchitectures exhibit many beneficial mechanical, energy conversion
and optical properties. However, these three-dimensional microarchitectures are significantly limited by their scalability.
Efforts have only been successful in demonstrating overall structure sizes of hundreds of micrometres, or contain size-
scale gaps of several orders of magnitude. This results in degraded mechanical properties at the macroscale. Here we
demonstrate hierarchical metamaterials with disparate three-dimensional features spanning seven orders of magnitude, from
nanometres to centimetres. At the macroscale they achieve high tensile elasticity (>20%) not found in their brittle-like
metallic constituents, and a near-constant specific strength. Creation of these materials is enabled by a high-resolution,
large-area additive manufacturing technique with scalability not achievable by two-photon polymerization or traditional
stereolithography. With overall part sizes approaching tens of centimetres, these unique nanostructured metamaterials might
find use in a broad array of applications.

D
espite the extraordinary mechanical14 , energy conversion5,6
and optical properties7,8 reported for three-dimensional (3D)
architectures at the micro- and nanoscale, we have yet to
capitalize on this to create billets of material at substantial sizes914 .
If made accessible at the bulk scale, these architected materials could
have widespread applications, ranging from photonic devices15,16 ,
to energy storage and conversion systems17,18 , and biomedical and
electronic devices19,20 . However, the applicability of these types of
3D metamaterials is significantly limited by their achievable length
scales and architectures within the available structural bandwidth.
Three-dimensional architected lattices have been limited either
by their manufacturing scalability, with a maximum size scale
demonstrated at 200 m, or by large length-scale gaps over three
orders of magnitude between critical feature sizes2125 . These
limitations make these remarkable properties inaccessible in real
world applications where scalability to relevant sizes and optimal
properties are equally crucial. Although ultralow-density graphene
aerogels combine both nanoscale features and macroscopic sizes on
a millimetre to centimetre scale, their strength and stiffness degrade
by more than a factor of 108 when compared to their intrinsic bulk
material properties. This is due to the large pore size relative to the
length scale of graphene filaments and the low connectivity between
their structural filaments26,27 when made into a larger-scale sample.
Larger-scale metallic microlattices comprised of a periodic
network of thin-walled nickel alloy tubes have been manufactured
with a large diameter-to-wall-thickness ratio21 , typically >1,000. As
the density decreases, their compressive strength (y ) and density
() are strongly coupledwith a quadratic or cubic scaling power
( 2.5 ), as a result of the absence of nanoscale features and
large size gaps between critical feature sizes4,21,28 . Furthermore, the
tensile elasticity of any low-density inorganic materials, such as
aerogels, ceramic nanolattices and metallic foams, has been limited
to a range of 0.35%12,29,30 . The attainment of ultralow density
(<0.2%) and optimal stiffness-to-density scaling in metallic lattices
using a network of highly connected periodic stretch-dominated
microarchitectures has come with a pricesignificant degradation
of strength at low densities due to the large structural gaps.
Natural materials, such as wood, nacre, diatom and bone, have
evolved through a strategy of organizing 3D architectures from
the nano- to macroscale, usually spanning at least five orders of
magnitude in size to overcome these limitations31 . Modern imaging
and analytical tools reveal that they exhibit ordered structures
on multiple length scales and that each hierarchy comparably
contributes to the bulk material properties. Tremendous modelling
and experimental efforts have been made to analyse these structural
connections between multiple length scales3234 . For instance, the
well-studied trabecular bone contains a hierarchical layout of
cellular architectures distributed through seven orders of magnitude
in length scales, which has contributed to its high strength and
fracture toughness with minimal weight35,36 . The porous structure
at the centimetre level is comprised of a network of ligaments, each
of which contains a complex architecture comprised of a network
of microstructural hollow fibres composed of concentric lamellae at
the sub-micrometre level. The toes of geckoes possess a remarkable
adhesion system with multiple levels of hierarchy comprised of
fibres that split into finer filaments with dimensions down to the
nanoscale37 . Recent modelling and experimental efforts have shown
that improved mechanical properties can be achieved through
introducing structural hierarchies into the topological framework
of 3D architectures30,31,35 , but the structural span has been limited
only to fractal-like features within three orders of magnitude, with
maximum sizes to hundreds of micrometres. The influence on the
macroscopic properties at the bulk scale is largely unknown. No
current technology has been able to harness these lucrative feature
sizes from nanostructured features at the bulk scale.
We present scalable, metallic, mechanical metamaterials that
simultaneously achieve high strength and ultralow density, as well as
high compressive and superelastic tensile behaviour at a bulk scale
107 times larger than their smallest nanoscale feature sizes within
the structure. These scalable metamaterials contain hierarchical
3D topologies whose feature size spans seven orders of magnitude
in length scale, from tens of nanometres to tens of centimetres.
The structural hierarchy connects macroscale architectures to
nanoscale features through successive reduction of feature size by

1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA. 2 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore,
California 94550, USA. 3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
*e-mail: raynexzheng@vt.edu

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ARTICLES NATURE MATERIALS DOI: 10.1038/NMAT4694

a Scanning
optics

Spatial light
modulator (SLM) Customized
focusing lens
UV LED at
405 nm

Projecting image
Z axis pattern from SLM
elevator
High resolution and large
3D printed object

Bath of liquid
monomer
c
d
e

Hierarchical metamaterial Hierarchical lattice network Hierarchical unit cell

5 cm 5 mm 500 m

f g h
i
j

Nanoscale
First-order hollow tube
Hierarchical unit cell Hierarchical filament First-order lattice struts

500 m 200 m 20 m 3 m 60 nm

Figure 1 | Nickel alloy hierarchical metamaterial and critical features across seven orders of magnitude in length scale. a, Polymer metamaterial
template. b, Large-area, high-resolution additive manufacturing of hierarchical metamaterials. ce, Optical microscope images of bulk hierarchical lattice
material with a network of hierarchical stretch-dominated octet unit cells. Scale bar in e: 80 m. fj, Scanning electron micrographs showing cross-section
breakdown of structural hierarchy of the multiscale metamaterial unit cell shown in e down to tens of nanometres in wall thickness. Scale bar in h: 10 m;
scale bar in i: 3 m.

approximately a factor of 10 between each hierarchy. Creation of the
metamaterial with this unprecedented scalability (Fig. 1a) is enabled
by a new type of additive manufacturing technique that is capable
of miniaturized architectures over large areas (Fig. 1b) combined
with nanoscale post-processing. The resulting nickelphosphorus
metamaterials are stretchable and compressible, with high tensile
(20%) and compressive elastic deformation (>50%) that is not
observed in any reported lightweight metal foams or lattices12,29,30,38 .
These hierarchical materials exhibit an optimized, near-constant
specific strength in both compression and tension, even at relative
densities below 0.2%.
The length-scale breakdown of our multiscale metallic
metamaterials with hierarchical architectures is shown in Fig. 1. On
the macroscale (5 cm) (Fig. 1c), the bulk metallic metamaterial
is comprised of a network of hierarchical stretch-dominated
octahedrontetrahedron (octet) unit cells which are designed to
carry load via axial stress (Fig. 1d). Each stretch-dominated unit cell
(Fig. 1e,f) from the hierarchical lattice network in Fig. 1d contains
200 m hierarchical strut members (Fig. 1g) that are comprised
of a network of stretch-dominated unit cells organized in the (110)
orientation (Fig. 1h). These first-order unit cells are comprised
of microscale thin-walled hollow tube nickelphosphorus struts
(Fig. 1i). At the lowest hierarchy (Fig. 1j), these materials are made
out of nickelphosphorus thin-walled hollow tubes with a thickness
ranging from 50 to 700 nm. The hierarchical features spanning
across Fig. 1dj within the material demonstrate arbitrary 3D
nanostructured materials with overall sizes at the macroscale.
Our approach to multiscale metamaterial designs is based on
assembling microscale filaments along a path defined by the ar-
chitecture at a higher length scale. Such a scheme allows for di-
verse, wide-ranging microarchitectures with distinct deformation
mechanisms at multiple length scales assembled into a larger-scale

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NATURE MATERIALS DOI: 10.1038/NMAT4694
a
Bend dominated
Hybrid hierarchy Cubo-octet
b c
Figure 2 | Hybrid hierarchical metamaterials from combinations of microarchitectures. a, Schematic illustration of the structural hierarchy of cubo-octet
bendstretch metamaterials with nanoscale nickelphosphorus constituent material. The cubo-lattice at the higher structural order comprises the
bend-dominated microarchitecture while the octet lattice at the lower structural order comprises the stretch-dominated microarchitecture. Each strut
member of the octet unit cell is a thin-shelled hollow tube. bd, SEM images of an as-fabricated bendstretch-dominated cubic hierarchical metamaterial
with architecture breakdown at each hierarchy. Scale bar in d: 50 m.
object with tunable properties. On each level of hierarchy, the ori-
entation of unit cells, relative density, tessellation, and feature sizes
are parameterized and designed to iterate in three dimensions to
comprise the bulk scale lattice (Supplementary Fig. 1). On the basis
of their deformation mechanism against loading, we characterize
microarchitectures at each level of hierarchy as stretch-dominated
and bend-dominated to make up the basic palette of the fractal
material generator (Fig. 2a and Supplementary Fig. 2). Combina-
tions of similar or dissimilar types of microarchitectures at adjacent
hierarchical levels result in fractal-like or hybrid metamaterials,
respectively. Furthermore, geometric transformations can be ap-
plied to the microarchitectures at each level of hierarchy. A variety
of stretch-dominated and stretchbend combinations can thus be
generated using the hierarchical lattice generator (Supplementary
Figs 3 and 4). A cuboid or bone-shaped hierarchical lattice for tensile
testing can be readily constructed by tessellating two microarchi-
tectures with distinct deformation domination along two orders of
length scales, with a bend-dominated architecture as the second
order and a stretch-dominated as the first order (Fig. 2a). Figure 2b
shows as-fabricated nickelphosphorus hierarchical metamaterial
with hybridizations of microarchitectures, with a bend-dominated
architecture at the second order (Fig. 2c) and a stretch-dominated
lattice at the first order of hierarchy (Fig. 2d), which is comprised of
nanoscale hollow tubes as their lowest structural hierarchy.
The fabrication of the multiscale metamaterial is enabled by a
scalable, microscale additive manufacturing technique combined
with post-processing methods. Two-photon lithographic and
projection microstereolithographic techniques are effective in
producing arbitrary, 3D periodic truss structures with microscale
and sub-microscale architectures over a small area spanning from
a few hundreds of micrometres to a few millimetres4,9 . Although
employing an objective with a high numerical aperture can achieve
microscale 3D features, the reduced field of view prevents the
achievement of multiscale feature sizes over a large area. This
tradeoff poses a fundamental limitation in producing hierarchical
lattice materials with 3D features across multiple length scales (from
10 cm to 1 m).
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ARTICLES
Stretch dominated
Octet lattice Octet Hollow tube
d
Large Area Projection Microstereolithography (LAPSL) com-
bines an addressable spatial light modulator (SLM) with a coor-
dinated optical scanning system to produce microscale architec-
tures over a substantially larger area (Supplementary Methods).
This technique takes advantage of galvanometric mirrors combined
with a customized scanning lens to project the light pattern from
the SLM onto the ultraviolet curable monomer surface. As the
light is scanned, the image projected from the SLM changes to
create an arbitrary pattern at any location on the surface of the
liquid. This enables microscale features fabricated within a feature
size span over four orders of magnitude (Fig. 1b) within several
hours. Using the base diacrylate polymer hierarchical metamaterial
(Fig. 1a) produced by LAPSL, we deposited a thin layer of nickel
phosphorus to create features at the lowest hierarchy via electroless
nickel deposition4 . Once the nickel shell grew to a desired thickness,
the polymer structure was chemically removed, producing tubes
with thicknesses ranging from 50 nm to 700 nm, representing the
lowest hierarchy. X-ray and energy dispersive (XRD) spectroscopy
confirmed that the film composition is 11% phosphorus and 89%
nickel by weight, with the XRD peak corresponding to a brittle-like
behaviour of the nickelphosphorus39,40 (Supplementary Fig. 13).
The resulting hierarchical materials contain 3D features at the tens-
of-nanometre scale in multi-centimetre-sized components, with a
successive reduction of feature size by at least one order of mag-
nitude per hierarchical level. With fractal hierarchical designs, hi-
erarchical nickelphosphorus metamaterials with relative densities
between 0.1% to 0.012% were created.
We compared a variety of mechanical properties (compressive,
tension and shear) of multiscale metamaterials with single ordered
polymer and nickelphosphorus microlattices. In contrast to
single ordered lattice materials, whose compressive strength
density scaling becomes quadratic or even cubic at ultralow
densities4,41 , hierarchical metamaterials at the equivalent density
have a tunable strengthdensity scaling relationship dependent on
the 3D topologies at each hierarchical level. This allows achieving
the maximum strength of a metamaterial for a given density by
optimizing the equivalent strength at each hierarchical level, which
3
ARTICLES NATURE MATERIALS DOI: 10.1038/NMAT4694

a Maximum strength b c 0.025

0.24 0.0028 0.0033 0.0041 0.0044 0.0048 0.0052 0.00550.0059 0.0061
0.10
0.0024 0.0037
0.0046 0.0050
0.09
0.0026 0.0030 0.0039
0.0022 0.0035

0.22 0.0019 First-order

0.020
0.0017 ligament local buckling 0.08
0.20 b d 0.07

Stress (MPa)
Stress (MPa)
0.0015

0.06 0.015
0.18
0.0013
d2/l2

0.0011 Second-order 0.05

ligament Euler buckling
0.16 8.4 104 0.04 0.010
0.14 6.2 104 0.03
0.02 0.005
0.12
4 104 c 0.01
0.10 0.00 0.000
0.006 0.010 0.014 0.018 0.022 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15
t/d1 Strain Strain
d 0.14 e
103
0.12

Yield strength (kPa)

0.10 102
Stress (MPa)

0.08 101
0.06 NiP microlattice (ref. 21)
100 NiP fractal lattice
0.04 SiO2 aerogels (ref. 27)
Nanotubular Al2O3 (ref. 25)
101
0.02 Nanotubular TiO2 (ref. 25)
Al2O3 nanolattice (ref. 3)
0.00 102
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12 0.14 104 103 102
Strain Relative density (/ 0)

Figure 3 | Tunable compressive response of fractal-like metamaterial. a, Failure map of ultralight hierarchical octet lattice as a function of first-order and
second-order design parameters. The red curve shows optimal strength at a given relative density. Each contour line represents values of relative density.
Stressstrain curves for the points indicated by triangles are given in bd. b, Stressstrain curve of uniaxial cyclic compression tests of a fractal
stretch-dominated metamaterial above the optimal line (t = 60 nm, d1 = 7.3 m, d2 /l2 = 0.2). c, Stressstrain curve of uniaxial cyclic compression tests of a
multiscale stretch-dominated metamaterial below the optimal line (t = 70 nm, d1 = 6 m, d2 /l2 = 0.11). d, Stressstrain curve of uniaxial cyclic compression
tests of a multiscale stretch-dominated metamaterial near the red curve (t = 120 nm, d1 = 6 m, d2 /l2 = 0.19). e, Strength as a function of relative density
of optimal stretch-dominated multiscale metamaterials compared with other low-density materials.

is characterized by the critical structural parameters from each Supplementary Movie 4). For metamaterials in the zone below
hierarchy, that is, the nanoscale wall thickness t, hollow tube the red curve, the deformation response is characterized by a
diameter d1 , and the hierarchical strut parameters at the larger sharp negative stiffness region corresponding to the snapping of
length scales and beyond (for example, diameter di and length hierarchical filaments triggered by Euler buckling of the hierarchical
li(i2) ) (Supplementary Fig. 4). Figure 3a shows the main results struts (Fig. 3c and Supplementary Movie 5). These two failure modes
from our theoretical analysis on stretch-dominated multiscale were confirmed by finite element analysis (see Supplementary
metamaterial (full derivation in Supplementary Methods). These Figs 10 and 11), where hierarchical periodic unit cells inside the
structural parameters collectively determine the failure modes at metamaterial, depicted above and below the optimal curve in Fig. 3a,
different levels of hierarchies which collectively determine the exhibited their predicted dominant buckling modes.
overall stability of the mechanical metamaterial. The maximum Lattices with ultralow relative density that fall along the optimal
yield strength (indicated by the red line) occurs when the minimal line (Fig. 3a red curve) where the two failure modes intersect
macroscopic loads that trigger the yield stress, the local buckling offer the maximum specific strength at a given relative density
at nanoscale wall thickness, and Euler buckling of the hierarchical (Fig. 3d, Fig. 3a point d). Figure 3e compares the yield strength
filaments from each hierarchy approach the same value. In of these optimized fractal-like stretch-dominated metamaterials
regions above this optimal line, first-order shell buckling at the against other first-order lattices. The optimized metamaterials
nanoscale thin-walled tube is the dominant failure mode, whereas exhibit unprecedented scaling between yield strength and relative
in regions below the line, Euler buckling of the 20200 m-size- density, with a scaling power of 1.3. This far exceeds first-order
scale hierarchical filament is the first triggered buckling event. lattices, which have a scaling power over 2.5 observed in NiP
As relative densities further increase, fracture is the dominant microlattices at relative densities below 0.2% (ref. 42). Consequently,
failure mode. These two representative failure modes are illustrated the hierarchical lattice yield stress is two orders of magnitude higher
in Fig. 3b,c. than that of the ultralow-density first-order periodic lattices. These
Metamaterials of the same relative density from different high compressibility and diverse elastic deformation modes of the
zones on the multiscale failure map on Fig. 3a exhibit distinct, metamaterials are attributed to the ability to tune the failure modes
tunable deformation behaviours. The uniaxial compression test in within each level of hierarchy: local buckling of the walls, Euler
Fig. 3b demonstrates a typical compression deformation of the buckling of the first-order tubes, yielding/fracturing of the first-
multiscale metamaterial with feature-size distributions between order struts, and Euler buckling of the second-order lattice, thereby
adjacent hierarchies in the zone above the optimal strength curve in optimizing the global failure load of the multiscale lattice. Our
Fig. 3a. The linear elastic compression deformation in the stretch- analysis and characterization also reveal tunable failure modes of
dominated metamaterial is followed by a plastic-like softening shear behaviours in these metamaterials that are dependent on
behaviour at the bulk scale, which is triggered by the buckling each topology at disparate length scales. A comparison between
of the nanoscale hollow tube walls. However, upon unloading, experimental results and analytical calculations is shown in
the metamaterial was able to elastically recover (Fig. 3a and Supplementary Methods (Supplementary Figs 69).

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NATURE MATERIALS DOI: 10.1038/NMAT4694 ARTICLES
a 0.50
0.45
0.40
0.35

Stress (MPa)
0.30
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20
b Strain
0.08
0.07
0.06

Stress (MPa)
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0.00
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25
c Strain
0.045
0.040
0.035

Stress (MPa)
0.030
0.025
0.020
0.015
0.010
0.005
0.000
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Strain
e 100
d 0.07

0.06

0.05 BS hierarchical metamaterials

Specific strength
(MPa g1 cm3)
Stress (MPa)

10
0.04

0.03 Alumina foam (ref. 44)

Stainless steel foam (refs 45,46)
0.02 Titanium foam (ref. 47)
Elastic limit BS hierarchical NiP (this work)
Silica aerogel (ref. 43)
0.01 1 Al2O3 nanolattice (ref. 12)
Fractal octet NiP (this work)
0.00
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.0 0.1 0.2
Strain Tensile strain

Figure 4 | Uniaxial tensile responses of hybrid hierarchical metamaterials. a, Mechanical data and still frames from the uniaxial tensile tests on a
thick-walled hierarchical (bendstretch, 700 nm) lattice demonstrating low elasticity, plastic and fracture behaviours similar to conventional metal foams.
b, Mechanical data and still frames from uniaxial tensile tests on a hollow tube hierarchical (bendstretch, 150 nm wall thickness) lattice demonstrating
transitional behaviourhigher ductility followed by brittle fracture. c, Mechanical data and still frames from the uniaxial tensile test on a thin-walled
hierarchical (bendstretch, 60 nm wall thickness) lattice demonstrating high tensile ductility with tensile strain approaching 20%. Scale bars in ac:
300 m. d, Cyclic tensile stressstrain response of a bendstretch hierarchical lattice with 60 nm hollow tubes before permanent fracture. e, Specific
ultimate tensile strength versus elongation to fracture of hierarchical bendstretch lattice material compared with non-hierarchical stretch-dominated
nickel lattices and literature data on low-density metal alloys.

Remarkably, multiscale metallic metamaterials with hybrid
hierarchical topology exhibited superelastic stretching deformation
at the macroscale, a behaviour not seen in bulk metal alloy
or cellular metals. Figure 4ac compares results of uniaxial
tensile tests of bendstretch hierarchical lattices with three
representative nanoscale wall thicknesses of 700 nm, 150 nm and
60 nm, respectively. The collective rotation of second- and first-
order strut members under global tensile stress can be seen from
the elongation of voids within the second- and first-order lattices
in Fig. 4ac, with a progressively larger amount of elongation in
metamaterials with reduced wall thickness. The highest tensile
elastic limit was seen on hierarchical metamaterials with a 60 nm
wall thickness. The bulk hierarchical bendstretch metamaterials
with a wall thickness of 60 nm exhibit a maximum elastic limit
over 20% (Fig. 4c), a value not found in low-density metal alloys or
nanolattices12 . These lattices maintain reversible elastic stretching
after multiple loading cycles before fracture (Fig. 4d). This extreme
tensile elasticity is a result of sequential rotation of bend-dominated
hierarchical ligaments, rotation of first-order nodal rotation, and the
stretching of first-order hollow tubes with nanoscale wall thickness.

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ARTICLES
When the material is stretched, the second-order bend-dominated
hierarchical ligaments rotate about their nodes, and start to unfold
from their original position. As the load increases, a continuously
increasing number of hollow tube first-order strut members start
to rotate about their nodes, until forming a nearly 90 angle from
the horizontal position, and continue to be stretched (Fig. 4c).
At larger strains beyond the elastic limit of the first-order hollow
tubes, the hierarchical lattice underwent micro-damage in the
nodes of the first-order strut members, leading to propagation of
node breaking (plateau section) and subsequent fracturing of the
second-order nodal connections (Supplementary Movies 2 and 3).
This damage ultimately leads to tensile failure of the material.
The rotation of the elastic hinges derived from the nanoscale
nodes, as well as the rotation of the second-order hierarchical
struts, creates a superelastic strain not seen in materials with a
brittle-like metallic constituent, which was confirmed by finite
element analysis (Supplementary Methods). In contrast, at a coating
thickness exceeding 500 nm (Fig. 4a and Supplementary Movie 1),
the uniaxial tensile behaviour of the metamaterial resembles that
of conventional metallic lattices, and the elastic limit is observed
at a strain less than 7% (ref. 30), indicating fracture-dominated
behaviour of the first-order struts. Figure 4e compares hierarchical
lattice tensile properties, with other recently reported ultralight
materials12,43 and lightweight metal alloys foams4447 . In a fractal-like
stretch-dominated lattice with a tube wall thickness of 60 nm, the
material exhibits a tensile fracture strain less than 10%.
These results suggest that the ultrahigh tensile elasticity revealed
in the scalable metamaterials at the macroscale is attributed
to the combination of hybrid (bend-stretched-dominated)
hierarchical architectures distributed over successive hierarchies
down to nodes with nanoscale thickness. At a relative density
below 0.1%, the specific tensile strength of this nickel alloy
hierarchical material reaches a value of 40.8 MPa g1 cm3 ,
with a linear strain approaching 20%, for materials with the
lowest wall thickness (60 nm). This specific tensile strength
relative to the density of the lattices is two orders of magnitude
higher than aluminium foams and lattices. Unlike single-ordered
microlattices with significant length-scale gaps3133 , a variety of
mechanical properties of metamaterials, such as compression,
tension and shear, can be tuned by incorporating multiscale
microarchitectures distributed over successive length scales from
nanometres to centimetres. Our methodology can be extended to
a variety of metamaterial property designs, where combinations
of deformation-dominated microarchitectures at successive length
scales will collectively give rise to new combinations of properties
not seen in bulk-scale materials. This creates the possibility for
nanoscale material properties to be harnessed and made accessible
in large-scale objects, opening a wide range of applications for these
mechanical metamaterials.
Methods
Methods and any associated references are available in the online
version of the paper.
Received 20 October 2015; accepted 7 June 2016;
published online 18 July 2016
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Acknowledgements
This work was performed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy by
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
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2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved
ARTICLES
Funding support from DOE LDRD LabWide 15-LW-083, Virginia Tech Startup support
and SCHEV fund from the State of Virginia and DARPA MCMA (Materials with
Controlled Microstructural Architecture, Program Manager J. Goldwasser) is gratefully
acknowledged. The authors wish to acknowledge Y. Wang and M. Messner for useful
input (LLNL-JRNL-677190). Large-area projection microstereolithography has been
submitted and is pending a US patent.
Author contributions
X.Z. conceived and directed the research; X.Z. and W.S. designed structures; X.Z.
designed the experiments. J.J., B.M., H.C. and X.Z. manufactured samples; W.S., H.C.,
D.C. and N.R. performed measurements; X.Z. and T.W. performed analytical and
numerical analysis. J.Y. performed ex situ measurements on nickelphosphorus; W.S.,
N.R., H.C. and X.Z. analysed data; X.Z. wrote the paper. X.Z. and C.M.S. supervised
research. All authors contributed to interpreting the data, preparing and editing the
manuscript.
Additional information
Supplementary information is available in the online version of the paper. Reprints and
permissions information is available online at www.nature.com/reprints.
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to X.Z.
Competing financial interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
7
ARTICLES
Methods
Additive manufacturing of multiscale material template. The process begins
with template fabrication of solid polymer fractal structures up to the third order of
hierarchy. These 2D fractal patterns are sequentially transmitted to the reflective
digital light modulator, which is illuminated with ultraviolet light from a light
emitting diode array. Each image is projected through a reduction lens onto the
surface of the photosensitive resin. The exposed liquid cures, forming a layer in the
shape of the 2D image, and the substrate on which it rests is lowered, reflowing a
thin film of liquid over the cured layer. The image projection is then repeated, with
the next image slice forming the subsequent layer.
To further expand the scalability of hierarchical feature sizes, an addressable
spatial light modulator (SLM) is coordinated with an optical scanning system to
produce large-scale parts with microscale resolution. A section of the image from
the SLM is reflected from the scanning mirror onto a photosensitive material. As
the mirror rotates about its axis with a small angle ( ), 2D patterns are reflected
onto a new area next to the previously exposed area, determined by the distance
from the mirror and the exposure area and the angular rotation of the galvo mirror.
The pattern change on the SLM is coordinated with the scanning rate of the
scanning mirror system. A customized scanning lens is used below the scanning
mirror to project the image onto a plane at the same level for all scanning angles.
The pattern is updated as the image is moved via the scanning optics to effectively
create a continuous image in the photosensitive material. As this scanned image is
much larger than a single image of the SLM, it enables small feature sizes over a
large area. This technique allows the fabrication of polymer template hierarchical
material, hundreds of millimetres in size, with multiscale features down to the
sub-10 m scale, which is uniquely suitable for fabricating hierarchical materials.
Fractal lattice generator. This customized script consists of a series of nested
framework (lattice) mathematical objects. Each hierarchical lattice is based on a
group of designed microarchitecture unit cell models arranged in multiple
hierarchies. Instead of being built from cylindrical struts for the entire lattice, the
unit cell model (level i) is comprised of an architecture (as defined by all the
subordinate framework objects) placed where each member of this architecture at a
lower level (level i 1) would reside. This process repeats until a lattice is
encountered which has no sub-frameworksat which point this lattice is built
from cylindrical struts. As each level of architecture is constructed, a number of
transformations, such as rotation, coordinate transformation, bending, twisting
and linear translation, can be applied onto the structure at each length scale,
significantly expanding the flexibility of the design method. Octet, gyroid,
tetrakaidecahedron and cuboid architectures are incorporated as unit cell models
in our script. The combinations of architectures at different hierarchical levels with
different transformations applied at each level allow a wide variety of different
hierarchical structures to be generated.
Finite element simulation. To simulate the mechanical response and identify the
dominant buckling modes, an automated script was developed to construct and
2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved
NATURE MATERIALS DOI: 10.1038/NMAT4694
mesh a two-level octet truss unit cell geometry with arbitrary (t/d1 ) and (d2 /l2 )
values. The hollow tube lattices were represented by shell elements (with
corresponding thickness t) and the nodes of intersecting truss members were
generated with straightforward Boolean operations of cylindrical geometries
without additional manipulation. Supplementary Fig. 9 shows two representative
unit octet truss cells with N = 4 and 8 level-1 octets per strut. To mimic the
response of a large lattice, nodes in the lower plane of the unit cell were constrained
with a vertical compressive displacement applied to those in the upper plane.
Nodes in the lateral bounding planes were limited to motion in their respective
planes. The simulations spanned several orders of relative density, with
t/d1 = 0.010.1 and d2 /l2 = 0.10.25. The finite element simulations were
performed quasi-statically, using a linear elastic materials model (E = 100 GPa and
= 0.33) with the NIKE3D implicit solver, developed at the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory4 . Small incremental strains were applied until shell or
second-order beam buckling was observed. The two buckling modes on both sides
of the optimal curve observed in experiments are also predicted by simulations.
Supplementary Fig. 10 highlights these modes for hollow tube lattices by plotting
bend magnitude in the case of shell buckling and lateral displacement for the
second-order Euler buckling regime. Tensile simulations of the cuboid lattice with
level-1 hollow octet struts were also performed using the same elastic properties.
These calculations captured the necking of the cuboid structure and the rotation of
the level-1 octets observed in the mechanical tests. Supplementary Fig. 11 shows
the deformation at 10% strain, and the resultant local stresses, which are
concentrated along the inner octet struts of the cuboid x-frame where maximum
bending occurs.
Mechanical testing. Monotonic and cyclical uniaxial compression experiments
were performed on metallic metamaterials using an Instron Microtester (5943)
equipped with Bluehill data acquisition software. In the first set of experiments,
structures were compressed uniaxially with cyclic incremental strain at a rate of
10 m s1 to determine their yield stress and overall deformation under load
characteristics. Unloading rather than loading moduli were used to mitigate the
possible effects of loading imperfections such as misalignment and partial
initial contact.
To study the tensile stress and strain of the hierarchical lattices, we designed a
custom dog-bone sample for uniaxial tensile testing. The dog-bone gauge length
consists of an architected lattice built between two rectangular beams, which serve
as grips for conducting the tensile test. Typical dog-bone grips match the lattice
cross-sectional area to ensure an even distribution of force to the lattice. Each grip
measures 3 mm in length to have a sufficient amount of material to grip for
repeatable testing. Our Instron 5943 mechanical tester is set up with a 1 kN
load cell and custom-made side-action grippers. Tests are conducted at an
extension rate of 10 m s1 and monitored with a video camera (Dino-Lite).
During the test, in situ video capturing the deformation of the metamaterial
was conducted along with stressstrain characteristics during loading
and unloading.
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