Resilient Mechanical Metamaterial Based on Cellulose Nanopaper with Kirigami Structure

Abstract

Nanopapers fabricated from cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) are flexible for bending while they are rather stiff against stretching, which is a common feature shared by conventional paper-based materials in contrast with typical elastomers. Cellulose nanopapers have therefore been expected to be adopted in flexible device applications, but their lack of stretching flexibility can be a bottleneck for specific situations. The high stretching flexibility of nanopapers can effectively be realized by the implementation of Kirigami structures, but there has never been discussion on the mechanical resilience where stretching is not a single event. In this study, we experimentally revealed the mechanical resilience of nanopapers implemented with Kirigami structures for stretching flexibility by iterative tensile tests with large strains. Although the residual strains are found to increase with larger maximum strains and a larger number of stretching cycles, the high mechanical resilience was also confirmed, as expected for moderate maximum strains. Furthermore, we also showed that the round edges of cut patterns instead of bare sharp ones significantly improve the mechanical resilience for harsh stretching conditions. Thus, the design principle of relaxing the stress focusing is not only important in circumventing fractures but also in realizing mechanical resilience.