PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Schaedler, T. A.
AU  - Jacobsen, A. J.
AU  - Torrents, A.
AU  - Sorensen, A. E.
AU  - Lian, J.
AU  - Greer, J. R.
AU  - Valdevit, L.
AU  - Carter, W. B.
TI  - Ultralight Metallic Microlattices
AID  - 10.1126/science.1211649
DP  - 2011 Nov 18
TA  - Science
PG  - 962--965
VI  - 334
IP  - 6058
4099  - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/334/6058/962.short
4100  - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/334/6058/962.full
SO  - Science2011 Nov 18; 334
AB  - Ultralight (<10 milligrams per cubic centimeter) cellular materials are desirable for thermal insulation; battery electrodes; catalyst supports; and acoustic, vibration, or shock energy damping. We present ultralight materials based on periodic hollow-tube microlattices. These materials are fabricated by starting with a template formed by self-propagating photopolymer waveguide prototyping, coating the template by electroless nickel plating, and subsequently etching away the template. The resulting metallic microlattices exhibit densities ρ ≥ 0.9 milligram per cubic centimeter, complete recovery after compression exceeding 50% strain, and energy absorption similar to elastomers. Young’s modulus E scales with density as E ~ ρ2, in contrast to the E ~ ρ3 scaling observed for ultralight aerogels and carbon nanotube foams with stochastic architecture. We attribute these properties to structural hierarchy at the nanometer, micrometer, and millimeter scales.