Scientists have developed a new type of material through 3D-printing called metamaterial. We all know that science taught us that any material which undergoes heating it will expand. Researchers have built up from scratch a 3D-printed material. This metamaterial was produced as part of the program DARPA, which is bound to analyze the materials with controlled microstructure architecture.
- Scientists have developed a metamaterial that minimizes its size when heated.
- They have 3D printed the material which proved to be so useful.
Scientists are of the opinion that this revolutionary material displays “negative thermal expansion.” Metamaterials are thought to consist of composite substances, like plastics, ceramics or metals, being processed into microscopic duplicating structures. According to the design of the structure, the components can implement into the metamaterial properties which do not pertain to nature. Most probably, these elements are not derived from the genuine materials.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Additive Manufacturing Initiative that teamed up together with knowledgeable people at the University of California and MIT from the University of Southern California. They used a well-known process called 3D printing which applied the projection microstereolithography procedure. After this process, the purpose was to combine a polymer and a composite formed from copper and polymer to develop a micro-lattice structure with a complex 3D bi-material.
In other words, these experts managed to print a substance that resulted from the mixing of two other substances which were deriving from the compound polymer-copper. This mixture was split in half and scientists were able to print separate layer of polymer and other layers of polymer-copper material. The result was a thin material made up of atomic fascicles and gaps that linked together to built cells.
The cells are disposed I such a way that when they are heated, some of them tend to expand more than the others. The result is that the cells gain flexibility. Thus the metamaterial minimizes. Based on claims of LLNL, this material can be modified in such a way that it would no longer shrink, engineer the topology and the geometry of the metamaterial to not permit its expansion.
The revolutionary material can be used for securing the optical mounts with high precision and also the microchips without using heat as an agent. The metamaterial can develop safer dental fillings, and it can substitute the thermal expansion spaces in buildings by using a solid filler.
Image source: wikipedia
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