4D printed mortise-tenon mechanical-electromagnetic multifunctional pixel metamaterials

Mechanical metamaterials are complicated artificial materials composed of periodically interconnected microstructures, exhibiting extraordinary mechanical properties not available in natural materials. However, the periodically interconnected design model results in most current metamaterials suffering from following limitations: i ) lack of modularity and repairability, ii ) damage transmittability, iii ) weak scalable fabrication and limited fabrication dimensions, and iv ) single functionality. Inspired by the connection mechanism of mortise-tenon structures and the configuration of brick–mortar structures, 4D printed mortise-tenon mechanical-electromagnetic multifunctional pixel metamaterials (MPMs) are developed in this work. The innovative binding constraint, derived from the Hanfu silk ribbon, has been proposed, achieving reliable connection of the MPM while suppressing damage transmission. The modular structure design strategy of the PMM enables large-scale and scalable manufacturing, while also achieving repairability. The developed mechanical-electromagnetic MPMs have multifunctional properties, including lightweight, energy absorption, electromagnetic wave absorption (RL min –32.84 dB) and reconfigurability, which have a wide range of application prospects in the field of electromagnetic stealth equipment.