Stretchable and negative-Poisson-ratio porous metamaterials

Abstract

Highly stretchable porous materials are promising for flexible electronics but their fabrication is a great challenge. Herein, several kinds of highly stretchable conductive porous elastomers with low or negative Poisson’s ratios are achieved by uniaxial, biaxial, and triaxial hot-pressing strategies. The reduced graphene oxide/polymer nanocomposite elastomers with folded porous structures obtained by uniaxial hot pressing exhibit high stretchability up to 1200% strain. Furthermore, the meta-elastomers with reentrant porous structures combining high biaxial (or triaxial) stretchability and negative Poisson’s ratios are achieved by biaxial (or triaxial) hot pressing. The resulting elastomer-based wearable strain sensors exhibit an ultrawide response range (0-1200%). The materials can be applied for smart thermal management and electromagnetic interference shielding, which are achieved by regulating the porous microstructures via stretching. This work provides a versatile strategy to highly stretchable and negative-Poisson-ratio porous materials with promising features for various applications such as flexible electronics, thermal management, electromagnetic shielding, and energy storage.