In spite of worldwide research, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) still have not fully realized their
original promise as ideal reinforcements for composite materials due to a number of
challenging issues such as weak interface, poor dispersion, misalignment and lack of optimized
design. Here we propose a bio-inspired structure of CNT bundles with controllable
crosslink density and staggered pattern of organization that mimic the architecture of
Biological materials in nature serve as a valuable source of inspiration for developing
novel synthetic materials with extraordinary properties or functions. Much effort to date
has been directed toward fabricating and understanding bio-inspired nanocomposites
with internal architectures mimicking those of nacre and collagen fibril. Here we establish
simple and explicit analytical solutions for both upper and lower bounds of the elastic
2-D "tension-shear chain" model (Ref.1-3) is well known successfully capturing the basic mechanical features of staggered structures in shell-like biomaterials. Our recent paper appeared in Comp. Sci. Tech. developed a three-dimensional (3D) "tension-shear chain" theoretical model to predict the mechanical properties of unidirectional short fiber reinforced composites, and especially to investigate the distribution effect of short fibers.
Recent years have witnessed intense interest in multifunctional surfaces that can be designed to switch between different functional states with various external stimuli including electric field, light, pH value, and mechanical strain. The present paper is aimed to explore whether and how a surface can be designed to switch between superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity by an applied strain.
Load-bearing biological materials such as shell, mineralized tendon and bone exhibit 2-7 levels of structural hierarchy based on constituent materials (biominerals and proteins) of relatively poor mechanical properties. A key question that remains unanswered is what determines the number of hierarchical levels in these materials. Here we develop a quasi-self-similar hierarchical model to show that,
Unidirectional nanocomposite structures with parallel staggered platelet reinforcements are widely observed in natural biological materials. Our recent paper, published in J. Mech. Phys. Solids, is aimed at an investigation of the stiffness, strength, failure strain and energy storage capacity of a unidirectional nanocomposite with non-uniformly or randomly staggered platelet distribution.