Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Supersonic impact resilience of nanoarchitected carbon

Nature Materials volume 20, pages 1491–1497 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Architected materials with nanoscale features have enabled extreme combinations of properties by exploiting the ultralightweight structural design space together with size-induced mechanical enhancement at small scales. Apart from linear waves in metamaterials, this principle has been restricted to quasi-static properties or to low-speed phenomena, leaving nanoarchitected materials under extreme dynamic conditions largely unexplored. Here, using supersonic microparticle impact experiments, we demonstrate extreme impact energy dissipation in three-dimensional nanoarchitected carbon materials that exhibit mass-normalized energy dissipation superior to that of traditional impact-resistant materials such as steel, aluminium, polymethyl methacrylate and Kevlar. In-situ ultrahigh-speed imaging and post-mortem confocal microscopy reveal consistent mechanisms such as compaction cratering and microparticle capture that enable this superior response. By analogy to planetary impact, we introduce predictive tools for crater formation in these materials using dimensional analysis. These results substantially uncover the dynamic regime over which nanoarchitecture enables the design of ultralightweight, impact-resistant materials that could open the way to design principles for lightweight armour, protective coatings and blast-resistant shields for sensitive electronics.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Material fabrication and microparticle impact experiments.
Fig. 2: Impact processes and resulting damage.
Fig. 3: Impact energetics and comparison to ballistic materials.
Fig. 4: Impact scaling laws for damage prediction.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are available within this article and its Supplementary Information.

References

  1. Zheng, X. et al. Ultralight, ultrastiff mechanical metamaterials. Science 344, 1373–1377 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Bauer, J., Schroer, A., Schwaiger, R. & Kraft, O. Approaching theoretical strength in glassy carbon nanolattices. Nat. Mater. 15, 438–443 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Portela, C. M. et al. Extreme mechanical resilience of self-assembled nanolabyrinthine materials. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 5686–5693 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Frenzel, T., Findeisen, C., Kadic, M., Gumbsch, P. & Wegener, M. Tailored buckling microlattices as reusable light-weight shock absorbers. Adv. Mater. 28, 5865–5870 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Krödel, S. & Daraio, C. Microlattice metamaterials for tailoring ultrasonic transmission with elastoacoustic hybridization. Phys. Rev. Appl. 6, 064005 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Frenzel, T., Kadic, M. & Wegener, M. Three-dimensional mechanical metamaterials with a twist. Science 358, 1072–1074 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Meyers, M. A. Dynamic Behavior of Materials Ch. 5 (Wiley, 1994).

  8. Schaedler, T. A. et al. Designing metallic microlattices for energy absorber applications. Adv. Eng. Mater. 16, 276–283 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Dattelbaum, D. M., Ionita, A., Patterson, B. M., Branch, B. A. & Kuettner, L. Shockwave dissipation by interface-dominated porous structures. AIP Adv. 10, 075016 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Deshpande, V. S. & Fleck, N. A. High strain rate compressive behaviour of aluminum alloy foams. Int. J. Impact Eng. 24, 277–298 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Barnes, A. T., Ravi-Chandar, K., Kyriakides, S. & Gaitanaros, S. Dynamic crushing of aluminum foams: part I—experiments. Int. J. Solids Struct. 51, 1631–1645 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Yungwirth, C. J., Wadley, H. N., O’Connor, J. H., Zakraysek, A. J. & Deshpande, V. S. Impact response of sandwich plates with a pyramidal lattice core. Int. J. Impact Eng. 35, 920–936 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Xue, Z. & Hutchinson, J. W. A comparative study of impulse-resistant metal sandwich plates. Int. J. Impact Eng. 30, 1283–1305 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Mueller, J., Matlack, K. H., Shea, K. & Daraio, C. Energy absorption properties of periodic and stochastic 3D lattice materials. Adv. Theory Simul. 2, 1900081 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Mines, R. A., Tsopanos, S., Shen, Y., Hasan, R. & McKown, S. T. Drop weight impact behaviour of sandwich panels with metallic micro lattice cores. Int. J. Impact Eng. 60, 120–132 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Harris, J. A., Winter, R. E. & McShane, G. J. Impact response of additively manufactured metallic hybrid lattice materials. Int. J. Impact Eng. 104, 177–191 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Ozdemir, Z. et al. Energy absorption in lattice structures in dynamics: experiments. Int. J. Impact Eng. 89, 49–61 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Tancogne-Dejean, T., Li, X., Diamantopoulou, M., Roth, C. C. & Mohr, D. High strain rate response of additively-manufactured plate-lattices: experiments and modeling. J. Dyn. Behav. Mater. 5, 361–375 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Lai, C. Q. & Daraio, C. Highly porous microlattices as ultrathin and efficient impact absorbers. Int. J. Impact Eng. 120, 138–149 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Hawreliak, J. A. et al. Dynamic behavior of engineered lattice materials. Sci. Rep. 6, 28094 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Lee, J.-H., Loya, P. E., Lou, J. & Thomas, E. L. Dynamic mechanical behavior of multilayer graphene via supersonic projectile penetration. Science 346, 1092–1096 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Hyon, J. et al. Extreme energy absorption in glassy polymer thin films by supersonic micro-projectile impact. Mater. Today 21, 817–824 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Zhang, X., Vyatskikh, A., Gao, H., Greer, J. R. & Li, X. Lightweight, flaw-tolerant, and ultrastrong nanoarchitected carbon. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 116, 6665–6672 (2019).

  24. Portela, C. M., Greer, J. R. & Kochmann, D. M. Impact of node geometry on the effective stiffness of non-slender three-dimensional truss lattice architectures. Extreme Mech. Lett. 22, 110–138 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Deshpande, V. S., Ashby, M. F. & Fleck, N. A. Foam topology: bending versus stretching dominated architectures. Acta Mater. 49, 1035–1040 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Ashby, M. F. The properties of foams and lattices. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 364, 15–30 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Evans, A. G. et al. Concepts for enhanced energy absorption using hollow micro-lattices. Int. J. Impact Eng. 37, 947–959 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Zhang, X. et al. Theoretical strength and rubber-like behaviour in micro-sized pyrolytic carbon. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 762–769 (2019).

  29. Crook, C. et al. Plate-nanolattices at the theoretical limit of stiffness and strength. Nat. Commun. 11, 1579 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Veysset, D. et al. Dynamics of supersonic microparticle impact on elastomers revealed by real-time multi-frame imaging. Sci. Rep. 6, 25577 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Schill, W., Heyden, S., Conti, S. & Ortiz, M. The anomalous yield behavior of fused silica glass. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 113, 105–125 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Lind, J., Jensen, B. J., Barham, M. & Kumar, M. In situ dynamic compression wave behavior in additively manufactured lattice materials. J. Mater. Res. 34, 2–19 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Dean, J., Dunleavy, C. S., Brown, P. M. & Clyne, T. W. Energy absorption during projectile perforation of thin steel plates and the kinetic energy of ejected fragments. Int. J. Impact Eng. 36, 1250–1258 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Yungwirth, C. J., O’Connor, J., Zakraysek, A., Deshpande, V. S. & Wadley, H. N. Explorations of hybrid sandwich panel concepts for projectile impact mitigation. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 94, 62–75 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Golsdmith, W. & Finnegan, S. A. Penetration and perforation processes in metal targets at and above ballistic velocities. Int. J. Mech. Sci. 13, 843–866 (1971).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Gupta, N. K., Iqbal, M. A. & Sekhon, G. S. Experimental and numerical studies on the behavior of thin aluminum plates subjected to impact by blunt- and hemispherical-nosed projectiles. Int. J. Impact Eng. 32, 1921–1944 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Abbud, L. H., Talib, A. R., Mustapha, F., Tawfique, H. & Najim, F. A. Behaviour of transparent material under high velocity impact. Int. J. Mech. Mater. Eng. 5, 123–128 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  38. Lee, B. L. et al. Penetration failure mechanisms of armor-grade fiber composites under impact. J. Compos. Mater. 35, 1605–1633 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Lind, J., Robinson, A. K. & Kumar, M. Insight into the coordinated jetting behavior in periodic lattice structures under dynamic compression. J. Appl. Phys. 128, 015901 (2020).

  40. Branch, B. et al. Controlling shockwave dynamics using architecture in periodic porous materials. J. Appl. Phys. 121, 135102 (2017).

  41. Branch, B. et al. A comparison of shockwave dynamics in stochastic and periodic porous polymer architectures. Polymer 160, 325–337 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Housen, K. R. & Holsapple, K. A. Impact cratering on porous asteroids. Icarus 163, 102–119 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Housen, K. R., Sweet, W. J. & Holsapple, K. A. Impacts into porous asteroids. Icarus 300, 72–96 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

C.M.P. and D.M.K. acknowledge financial support from Office of Naval Research Award N00014-16-1-2431. J.R.G. acknowledges support from the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship. D.V., Y.S. and K.A.N. acknowledge support by the US Army Research Office through the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN), under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-18-2-0048. The authors thank W. J. Schill for valuable discussions.

Author information

Author notes

  1. David Veysset

    Present address: Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Carlos M. Portela

  2. Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Bryce W. Edwards & Julia R. Greer

  3. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    David Veysset, Yuchen Sun & Keith A. Nelson

  4. Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Yuchen Sun & Keith A. Nelson

  5. Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Dennis M. Kochmann

  6. The Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Julia R. Greer

Authors
  1. Carlos M. Portela
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Bryce W. Edwards
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. David Veysset
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yuchen Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Keith A. Nelson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Dennis M. Kochmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Julia R. Greer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

C.M.P., D.V., K.A.N., D.M.K. and J.R.G. designed the study and interpreted the results. C.M.P. and B.W.E. fabricated the samples and conducted nanomechanical experiments. D.V. and Y.S. performed the impact experiments. C.M.P. and B.W.E. analysed all data. C.M.P., K.A.N. and J.R.G. supervised the project. C.M.P., D.M.K. and J.R.G. wrote the manuscript with input from all authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Carlos M. Portela or Julia R. Greer.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Materials thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Pre-pyrolysis sample configuration.

a, Polymeric IP-Dip tetrakaidecahedron sample with overall dimensions of 300 × 300 × 150μm3. b, Diagram of spring elastic foundation decoupling unit cells from the Si substrate, and c, detailed view of a single helical spring with its characteristic parameters (see Methods for values). Scale bar, 100 μm.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Crater morphology evolution.

Crater evolution as a function of relative density \(\overline{\rho }\) and impact velocity v0. Full penetration of the \(\overline{\rho }\approx 14 \%\) sample was observed for the impact at 749 m/s, and deep particle embedding was observed in the \(\overline{\rho }\approx 23 \%\) sample at 757 m/s. White scale bar 40 μm, inset diameters 18 μm.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Material compaction and failure in craters.

a, FIB cross-section at the edge of the crater (and captured projectile) of a \(\overline{\rho }\approx 23 \%\) sample after impact at v0= 516 m/s. b, FIB cross-section at the middle of the crater for the sample in a, showing compacted unit cells below the captured projectile. c,d, Crater of a \(\overline{\rho }\approx 14 \%\) sample after impact at v0= 749 m/s exhibiting full-sample penetration and particle rebound at vr= 296 m/s. Some compacted unit cells are observed to remain within the crater. e-g, Crater of a \(\overline{\rho }\approx 23 \%\) sample after impact at v0= 255 m/s and particle rebound at vr= 48 m/s, showing brittle failure of individual carbon struts. Scale bars in a-c, 10 μm; d,e, 5 μm; and g, 500 nm.

Extended Data Fig. 4 SiO2-Si impact experiments.

Impact of 14 μm-diameter SiO2 spheres onto a Si substrate. a, Impact and rebound speeds of 514 m/s and 339 m/s, respectively, and b, impact speed of 646 m/s causing particle shatter. c, Micrograph of initial SiO2 particle, and d, fragment of a shattered particle. Scale bar in a,b, 30 μm; c,d, 4 μm.

Extended Data Fig. 5 SiO2-Si impact energetics.

a, Normalized rebound (Wr/W0) and inelastic (Wi/W0) energies, as functions of the impact energy (W0), exhibiting a nonlinear increase in dissipation with increasing impact energy and a transition to a particle shatter regime between 650-700 m/s. Particle shatter was categorized as a normalized inelastic energy of 1. b, Inelastic energy as a function of average particle consolidation Jp, that is, the resulting fraction of the original volume after impact, estimated using the model proposed by Schill et al.31. The transition to the shatter regime is estimated to occur for an average Jp of 0.91-0.93. These values serve as a lower bound for the actual consolidation in the particles since consolidation is most likely localized in some regions of the particle rather than being constant throughout the entirety of the volume. c, Estimated consolidation pressure as a function of Jp, obtained from the model by Schill et al.31. Error bars correspond to the standard error in measurements.

Extended Data Fig. 6 SiO2 inelastic energy function.

Inelastic energy from the SiO2-Si impact experiments as a function of the rebound energy, restricted to the range of rebound energies observed in the nanoarchitected carbon impact experiments. A quadratic function of the form \({W}_{i,Si{O}_{2}}={C}_{1}{W}_{r}^{2}+{C}_{2}{W}_{r}+{C}_{3}\), with fit parameters C1 = 5.94 × 106, C2 = − 0.126, and C3 = 1.34 × 10−9, was used to estimate the inelastic energy contribution of the SiO2 projectiles in the nanoarchitected carbon impact experiments. This first-order approximation assumes that comparable SiO2 dissipation occurs during rebound from compacted nanoarchitected carbon compared to the Si substrate. This function was used to isolate the contribution of the nanoarchitected carbon to the inelastic energy in the impact experiments. Error bars correspond to the standard error in measurements.

Extended Data Fig. 7 Energy dissipation via compaction shocks.

a, Diagram of a compaction shock front propagating within a cylindrical crater, caused by impact at velocity v0, where the shock front (moving at velocity \(\dot{s}\)) is shown in red. The particle velocity v, density ρ, and stress σ behind and ahead of the discontinuity are depicted using +/- superscripts, respectively. b, Inelastic energy of the nanoarchitected carbon impact experiments, as a function of the impact energy W0, decomposed as Wi = Wc + Wd. Here, \({W}_{c}={m}_{p}{v}_{0}^{2}/2\) corresponds to a measure of the kinetic energy imparted on the participation mass (that is, the crater-mass kinetic energy), and Wd is the energy attributed to other dissipation mechanisms such as compaction shock propagation. This decomposition is in line with the form presented in Eq. (2). For the same impact energy W0, a higher Wd value is observed in the \(\overline{\rho }\approx 23 \%\) compared to the \(\overline{\rho }\approx 14 \%\) samples. Error bars correspond to the standard error in measurements.

Extended Data Fig. 8 Nanomechanical compression experiments.

Uniaxial in situ compression of \(\overline{\rho }=20\pm 1 \%\) relative density samples, with insets showing a representative sample before and after compression. After an extended elastic strain limit on the order of 10% (consistent with other nanoscale pyrolytic carbon explorations23,28), catastrophic brittle failure was observed upon reaching a collapse stress level. All samples were fabricated on a sacrificial pillar which collapsed at low loads to enable proper sample contact with the substrate. Zero-strain was defined as the beginning of the experiment for consistency. Scale bars, 10 μm.

Extended Data Fig. 9 Specific impact energy comparison.

Comparison of the specific inelastic energy \({W}_{i}^{* }={W}_{i}/{m}_{p}\), that is, the inelastic energy normalized by the participation mass, attained by the nanoarchitected carbon materials compared to other materials with specific impact energies \({W}_{0}^{* }={W}_{0}/{m}_{p}\) in the same experimental regime. The nanoarchitected carbon samples were observed to outperform nanoscale polystyrene22 and Kevlar composites38 by 75% and 72%, respectively, for the same specific impact energy. Error bars correspond to the standard error in measurements.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary text (sections I and II), video captions 1–5 and Tables 1–3.

Supplementary Video 1

LIPIT experiment of a 14 μm-diameter SiO2 microparticle impacting a nanoarchitected tetrakaidecahedron carbon material (\(\overline{\rho }\approx 23 \%\)) at v0= 44 m/s and elastically rebounding at an angle away from the microscope objective. No damage was observed on the sample after this impact.

Supplementary Video 2

LIPIT experiment of a 14 μm-diameter SiO2 microparticle impacting a nanoarchitected tetrakaidecahedron carbon material (\(\overline{\rho }\approx 23 \%\)) at v0= 238 m/s, causing cratering and particle rebound at vr= 50 m/s.

Supplementary Video 3

LIPIT experiment of a 14 μm-diameter SiO2 microparticle impacting a nanoarchitected tetrakaidecahedron carbon material (\(\overline{\rho }\approx 23 \%\)) at v0= 676 m/s, causing cratering and particle capture.

Supplementary Video 4

LIPIT experiment of a 14 μm-diameter SiO2 microparticle impacting a thick Si substrate at v0= 514 m/s and rebounding at vr= 39 m/s.

Supplementary Video 5

LIPIT experiment of a 14 μm-diameter SiO2 microparticle impacting a thick Si substrate at v0= 646 m/s and subsequent shatter.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Portela, C.M., Edwards, B.W., Veysset, D. et al. Supersonic impact resilience of nanoarchitected carbon. Nat. Mater. 20, 1491–1497 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-021-01033-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-021-01033-z

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing