Reference #: 01569
The University of South Carolina is offering licensing opportunities for Auxetic metamaterials guided by blue-phase liquid crystals disclination network
Background:
Metamaterials with a negative Poisson ratio are known as auxetic structures. Interestingly, auxetic and near-zero Poisson’s ratio (ZPR) responses are ubiquitous spanning from animals’ skins such as cats and snakes to the dimensional stability of aquatic organisms under hydrostatic pressure; however, ZPR is limited to few examples including cork and cancellous bone structures. So far, few metamaterials with exotic mechanical responses have been reported; for instance, in the case of auxetic structures, these adhere to the category of re-entrant, chiral, and rotating unit structures, and less attention being paid to naturally occurring metamaterial architecture.
Invention Description:
The present invention introduces the design principle which is guided by defect networks of the high chirality liquid crystals; enables to exhibit orientation-dependent zero and negative Poisson’s ratio over a large range of strain, independent of scale. Most importantly, the final architecture has a lightweight and can be fabricated on a large scale.
Potential Applications:
This technology has potential in multidisciplinary areas of applications including piezoelectric sensors, membrane/actuated filters, acoustic dampers, sport apparel and shoes, smart textile, biomedical applications such as, tissue engineering, prosthetic organs and stents, military applications such as protective armors, projectiles, and aeronautics, as well as lightweight impact resistance spacecraft materials and structures.
Advantages and Benefits:
Few structures with ZPR or NPR responses have been introduced in which most NPR structures are categorized as re-entrant, chiral and rotating units and man-made structures with ZPR responses is even limited. Thus, less attention is being paid to structures that naturally occurred due to free energy minimization. This invention steps further and introduces the design principle which exhibits the NPR and ZPR over large ranges of strain, most importantly, these series of designs are lightweight and scale-independent which ease its applicability and processability and can be applied to a wide range of materials.