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arXiv · 2206.05364

Giant shape-memory effect in twisted ferroic nanocomposites

Donghoon Kim·Minsoo Kim·Steffen Reidt·Hyeon Han·Hongsoo Choi·Josep Puigmartí-Luis·Morgan Trassin·Bradley J. Nelson·Xiang-Zhong Chen·Salvador Pané
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Abstract

The shape recovery ability of shape-memory alloys vanishes below a critical size (~50nm), which prevents their practical applications at the nanoscale. In contrast, ferroic materials, even when scaled down to dimensions of a few nanometers, exhibit actuation strain through domain switching, though the generated strain is modest (~1%). Here, we develop free-standing twisted architectures of nanoscale ferroic oxides showing shape-memory effect with a giant recoverable strain (>10%). The twisted geometrical design amplifies the strain generated during ferroelectric domain switching, which cannot be achieved in bulk ceramics or substrate-bonded thin films. The twisted ferroic nanocomposites allow us to overcome the size limitations in traditional shape-memory alloys and opens new avenues in engineering large-stroke shape-memory materials for small-scale actuating devices such as nanorobots and artificial muscle fibrils.

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Donghoon Kim, Minsoo Kim, Steffen Reidt, Hyeon Han, Hongsoo Choi, Josep Puigmartí-Luis, Morgan Trassin, Bradley J. Nelson, Xiang-Zhong Chen, Salvador Pané. 2022-06-10. Giant shape-memory effect in twisted ferroic nanocomposites. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36274-w

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