Magnetic flexible metastructures: developing smart shape-morphing capabilities at extremely low-temperatures

Abstract

Achieving intelligent actuation and durability in deformable structures for extreme environments, such as deep space and cryogenic medicine, presents a significant challenge, underscoring the urgent need for advanced materials and innovative designs. Among stimuli-responsive materials, magnetically actuated metastructures stand out for their distinctive magnetomechanical properties and superior actuation performance, providing effective solutions to these challenges. However, research on magnetic smart materials in extremely low-temperature, multi-field environments remains scarce. This study presents magnetically-responsive flexible metastructures, inspired by traditional origami and paper-cutting, capable of non-contact actuation, rapid and reversible responses, and large deformations, at both ambient and cryogenic temperatures (−196 °C). By harnessing the exceptional thermal stability of polyimide (PI) and programmed 3D printing of magnetic domains, the metastructures exhibit remarkable magnetically-driven deformation behavior, achieving up to 40 % shrinkage even under liquid nitrogen conditions. Furthermore, these metastructures demonstrate impressive crawling, grasping, and self-assembly capabilities at extreme low temperatures. Additionally, a magnetically-controlled superconducting flexible antenna is designed, enabling reconfiguration of its operating frequency through magnetically-driven deformation. This work provides a novel approach for realizing smart material functionalities and applications in extreme environments.