A University at Buffalo (UB)-led research team has developed a new 3D-printed molecular ferroelectric metamaterial.

The advancement, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is a step toward making lab-created materials more affordable and adaptable to countless multifunctional technologies. It could benefit everything from acoustic blankets for aircraft soundproofing to shock absorbers and elastic cloaks that shield sensitive electronic systems from external mechanical disturbances.

“The sky is the limit when it comes to ferroelectric metamaterials,” said Shenqiang Ren, the study’s lead author and professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.Source: University at BuffaloSource: University at Buffalo

A metamaterial is any material engineered to have a property that is not found in naturally occurring materials. Ferroelectricity relates to crystalline substances that have spontaneous electric polarization that is reversible by an electric field.

In recent decades, researchers have been studying how to merge materials with these properties. While progress has been made, researchers have struggled to produce ferroelectric metamaterials that are cost-effective and easily adaptable to electronic and mechanical devices.

The new study attempts to solve these problems by utilizing the latest advancements in computing, additive manufacturing, materials design, acoustics and other fields.

The research team devised a plan to 3D-print a scaffold-supported ferroelectric crystalline lattice made of imidazolium perchlorate.

An emerging advanced manufacturing technology, 3D printers can directly fabricate products from digital design with precise control on structures, materials and functionalities, according to the researchers. In turn, this creates opportunities to advance material discoveries and expand industrial applications.

The findings, Ren said, pave the way for the use of 3D printers to create molecular ferroelectric metamaterials. The unique design of the lattice enables it to self-correct any deviations from the design while the material is still being printed. Also, the material’s stiffness — how much it resists deformation — is reprogrammable, which, in turn, allows researchers to “tune” the material to filter out different subwavelength frequencies.

According to researchers, metamaterials provide a platform to achieve control over sound propagation and acoustic wave manipulation. Such potential can only be realized if researchers are able to create such materials — a goal that this work moves toward.

The work was partially funded by the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO).

“One of the reasons ARO is funding Professor Ren’s project is that molecular ferroelectrics are amenable to bottom-up processing methods — like 3D printing — that would otherwise be challenging to use with traditional ceramic ferroelectrics,” said Evan Runnerstrom, program manager in the Army Research Office, an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory. “This paves the way for tunable metamaterials for vibration damping or reconfigurable electronics, which could allow future Army platforms to adapt to changing conditions.”

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