3D-printed Metamaterials with Versatile Functionalities

Metamaterials are artificial structures that have been engineered to exhibit properties that do not occur naturally in conventional materials. They were firstly made up of periodic unit cells that interact with electromagnetic (EM) waves to manipulate their behavior, showing extraordinary phenomena like EM cloaking, negative index, beam deflection and so on. In recent years, the concept of metamaterial has been penetrating in various physical domain and various metamaterials with versatile functionalities have been proposed and fabricated by 3D printing technology to manipulate the interactions between matter and electromagnetic, thermal, acoustic, and mechanical energy. With the increasing of structural complexity, material types, precision additive manufacturing serve as a powerful tool to achieve novel metamaterials with extraordinary performance and fusion of functionalities. In this paper, we reviewed the remarkable properties enabled by 3D printed metamaterials in different fields, and analyzed the consilience relationship between structure, function, and manufacturing process.