3D Printed Functional Lattice Structures

Dear Colleagues,

The advent of three-dimensional (3D) printing brings about the possibilities of designing functional materials based on their structures as opposed to their chemistry. Specifically, these materials are designed with the introduction of architectured pores, and they are also porous and periodic in nature. A new class of material, known as lattice structure, manifests from this. Various types of lattice structures, with features based on struts, shells, plates, and their hybrids, exist. Owing to their unique porous and cellular structure, they often display properties not commonly found in traditional bulk materials, such as being lightweight, with an usually low/high specific stiffness and strength, deforming with a stress plateau region, having a high specific surface area, with unique flow properties, and with meta-mechanical behaviors. For instance, they are most commonly used as structural and protective materials for them to be lightweight and with an energy-absorbing behavior derived from the stress plateau. For their reduced stiffness and strength, they are also used as artificial bone implants whereby their bone-matching mechanical properties help to overcome the problem of stress shielding. Their high specific surface area, which allows maximized mass interactions, in turn allows them to be used as electrochemical electrodes, membranes, and filters. For their designable fluid flow properties, they are also attracting attention as acoustic metamaterials. With virtually unlimited possibilities in structural design, and (3D printable) material selections/combinations, it is apparent that there is a lot more that we can discover when it comes to the potentials of functional lattice structures.

This Special Issue welcomes all articles related to the 3D printing of lattice structures, including to but not limited to their design, materials processing, applications and performance, and mechanisms. This Special Issue also aims to help to advance the scientific and technical understandings of 3D-printed functional lattice structures.

Dr. Xinwei Li
Guest Editor

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