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Mechanomaterials and Nanomechanics:

Toward Proactive Design of Material
Properties and Functionalities
Guijin Zou, Chorng Haur Sow, Zhisong Wang, Xiaodong Chen,* and Huajian Gao*

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ABSTRACT: While conventional mechanics of materials offers a passive understanding of

the mechanical properties of materials in existing forms, a paradigm shift, referred to as
mechanomaterials, is emerging to enable the proactive programming of materials’
properties and functionalities by leveraging force−geometry−property relationships. One
of the foundations of this new paradigm is nanomechanics, which permits functional and
structural materials to be designed based on principles from the nanoscale and beyond.
Although the field of mechanomaterials is still in its infancy at the present time, we discuss
the current progress in three specific directions closely linked to nanomechanics and
provide perspectives on these research foci by considering the potential research
directions, chances for success, and existing research capabilities. We believe this new
research paradigm will provide future materials solutions for infrastructure, healthcare,
energy, and environment.

INTRODUCTION with relevant scales that can be deployed to program material

The hugely successful engineering field of mechanics of
materials has historically focused on the passive mechanical
responses (e.g., modulus, strength, ductility, fracture tough-
ness, etc.) of materials under applied loading. Implementing
the knowledge of mechanics of materials over the past two
centuries has enabled many key technological advances in
aerospace, civil/infrastructure, automobile, and energy indus-
tries that led to an unprecedented rise of living standards for
much of the world’s population. Currently, there is an urgent
need for materials with designed or targeted properties and
functionalities,1−6 driven by the increasingly stringent require-
ments in modern technologies. In addition, materials with
specific combinations of properties and functionalities, such as
weight, stiffness, strength, ductility, fracture toughness, etc., are
difficult to obtain since many of the properties are mutually
exclusive within individual materials (e.g., strength versus
toughness).7,8 Moreover, there is usually a theoretical limit
(e.g., breaking strength of atomic bonds) for specific materials
properties that are far from being approached by existing
technologies.9−11 To address these challenges, the emerging
field of mechanomaterials12,13 focuses on how to proactively
deploy mechanical forces (e.g., via fluid flow,14 peeling,15 cold-
drawing,16 etc.) and designed geometries during fabrication or
customized postfabrication processes, to program diverse
properties and functionalities of materials at nanoscale and
beyond. Figure 1 summarizes the typical forces and geometries
Published 2024 by American Chemical
Society
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properties at multiple scales.
A major focus of mechanomaterials is the delivery of new
materials with specifically designed or targeted properties and
functionalities. The synergy between mechanomaterials and
other strategic topics in nanomechanics, including atomic scale
engineering, optomechanics, quantum thermodynamics, en-
ergy-efficient nanomecho-spin-orbit devices, and nano/micro-
machines, has been discussed in a recent report.13 Briefly,
progress in thermodynamics at the nanoscale provides the
theoretical foundation and design strategies for mechanoma-
terials with respect to the manipulation of forces and
geometries at the nanoscale, especially under intrinsic
fluctuations. The development of nano/micromachines, such
as rotational molecular motors, translational molecular motors,
and microswimmers, could help deploy forces and geometries
in materials fabrication, and can even serve as the active
constituents of materials.13 The advancement of mechanoma-
terials can also provide platforms to investigate fundamental
Published: April 27, 2024
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Figure 1. Mechanomaterials toward proactive designs of programmable materials at multiple scales, from atomic scale manipulation of lattice
deformation and grain refinement, to molecular scale control of interlocking and entanglements, to nanoscale fabrication and assembly, and
to microscale deployment of structures. Adapted with permission from ref 12. Copyright 2021 Wiley-VCH.

sciences such as thermodynamics at the nanoscale, as well as
novel materials to construct nano/micromachines and energy-
efficient functional devices. Here, within this broadly defined
area of mechanomaterials, we focus on a few topics at its
intersection with nanomechanics, each adopting a different
strategy but with the common goal to create materials with
properties and functionalities that approach their theoretical
limits or surpass those of materials existing in nature. Rapid
advances in fabrication technologies, particularly additive
manufacturing and nanofabrication, have made it increasingly
possible and practical to proactively deploy mechanical forces
and designed geometries across multiple scales during
materials fabrication. We believe that now is the right time
to invest and stimulate further research in these fields, which
will serve as a foundation for the rational design and
fabrication of next-generation structural and functional
materials and devices through manufacturable, sustainable,
and economical pathways. In the following, we provide a brief
review of some representative research directions, challenges,
and opportunities.
MECHANICAL METAMATERIALS: PUSHING
ARCHITECTURE STRUCTURING DOWN TO
NANOSCALE
Mechanical metamaterials such as emerging nano- and
microarchitected materials possess unusual mechanical proper-
ties that do not exist in nature, usually arising from the
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structure rather than the ingredient materials. With the advent
of various fabrication techniques, metamaterials with periodi-
cally patterned or even disordered structures are being
manufactured to achieve unprecedented mechanical properties.
For instance, beam-based ceramic nanolattices have been
constructed from aluminum oxide, in which the beams are
designed to stretch rather than bend, leading to strong,
lightweight, and recoverable properties that conventional
ceramics do not possess (Figure 2a).17 Advanced fabrication
techniques including two-photon lithography direct laser
writing, atomic layer deposition, and oxygen plasma etching
allow for the deployment of a specific type of geometry, the
hollow octet-truss nanolattice tube, as the unit cell in the
structural metamaterial, with a minimal characteristic size
around 5 nm (the wall thickness). The Ashby plot in Figure 2a
displays the available properties space in terms of strength and
density for materials selection and design, where the “white
space” region indicates the current technological gap to be
filled by research and innovation in mechanical metamaterials,
as demonstrated by this pioneering work.17 A class of
nanoarchitected glassy carbon nanolattices was manufactured
that exhibit extremely high specific strength using two-photon
lithography direct laser writing and pyrolysis.11 The nano-
architected carbon can be lightweight and flaw-tolerant and
attain specific strength orders of magnitude above those of
existing materials through designed geometries.18,19 By
depositing a high-entropy alloy (HEA) film with composition
Al19.5Cr19.9Fe15.1Co23.7Ni21.9 on the polymer strut created by
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Figure 2. Micro- and nanoarchitected mechanical metamaterials. (a) An example of architecture, design, and microstructure of alumina
nanolattices, as well as an associated Ashby plot in terms of strength vs density. Adapted with permission from ref 17. Copyright 2014
American Association for the Advancement of Science. (b) The structure of a composite nanolattice across 5 orders of magnitude in length
scale. Adapted with permission from ref 20. Copyright 2018 American Chemical Society.
two-photon lithography, an architected composite nanolattice
with characteristic size down to a few nanometers (grain size of
HEA) was created,20 as shown in Figure 2b, that demonstrates
an ability to overcome the strength−recoverability trade-off.
This remarkable combination of strength and coverability was
achieved by optimizing both architecture and materials over 4
orders of magnitude of length scales, including the grain size of
the metal film, film thickness, strut size, and unit cell size.
Recently, through the design of increasingly sophisticated
topologies (e.g., Schoen’s I-graph-wrapped package, Neovius
minimal surface), a class of shell-based carbon nanolattices was
created that can achieve the theoretical limit of strength
because the topologies are designed to avoid stress
concentration and achieve uniform strain energy distributions
with a nanoscale feature size.21 In addition to static mechanical
properties, nanoarchitected carbon has also demonstrated an
ability to withstand supersonic impact.22 In addition to the
above approaches, a strategy, called Implosion Fabrication
(ImpFab), for the direct assembly of three-dimensional (3D)
nanomaterials consisting of metals, semiconductors, and
biomolecules arranged in virtually any 3D geometry was
developed.23 In this approach, hydrogels are adopted as
scaffolds for volumetric deposition of materials at defined
points in three dimensions, and after attaching functional
materials, the following controlled dehydration can achieve
nanoscale feature sizes in a solid substrate. Highly conductive,
3D nanostructures with resolution in the tens of nanometers
for optical metamaterials have been demonstrated by this
method,23 while their mechanical properties have not been
fully explored. At longer length scales, structured fabrics with
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topological interlocked particles exhibit dramatically tunable
mechanical properties through a jamming transition,24
providing a route to program stiffness at desired locations.
GRADIENT NANOSTRUCTURED
MECHANOMATERIALS: EVADING MATERIALS
PROPERTY TRADE-OFFS
By arranging the local chemical compositions or constituents
and/or structural characteristics with spatial gradients, natural
materials have acquired superior properties and functionalities
with fairly weak components.7 While this gradient design has
inspired efforts to fabricate functionally graded materials since
the 1980s, 25 only in the past decade have gradient
nanostructures been introduced to create materials with
unprecedented properties,26−29 in part because of the advance-
ment in various fabrication techniques. These fabrication
techniques include top-down approaches such as surface
mechanical treatment methods, accumulative roll bonding,
and laser shock peening, as well as the bottom-up approaches
such as electrodeposition, magnetron sputtering, and 3D
printing. These methods have vastly expanded the structural
design length scales, ranging from several nanometers to
hundreds of micrometers and to millimeters and beyond. The
mechanical properties of materials, especially metals and alloys,
are governed by interactions between internal defects,
including point defects (atomic vacancies, interstitials), line
defects (dislocations), and planar defects (grain, interphase
boundaries). The grain boundaries can provide barriers to the
movement of dislocations and in general can be used to
strengthen materials (Figure 3a). However, their ability to
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Figure 3. Overcoming the strength−ductility trade-off though gradient nanostructures. (a) Schematic of nanostructures with grain and twin
boundaries in crystalline materials, adapted with permission from ref 32. Copyright 2009 American Association for the Advancement of
Science. (b) A gradient nanotwinned microstructure, characterized by spatial gradients in both twin boundary spacing and grain size,
presents an exceptional combination of strength, elongation, and work hardening. Adapted with permission from ref 27. Copyright 2018
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
accommodate plastic deformations is compromised, leading to
a loss of ductility with increased concentration of grain
boundaries. Among the grain boundaries, a class of coherent
internal boundaries where the arranged atoms on the two sides
of the interface are mirror images of each other (Figure 3a),
commonly referred to as twin boundaries (TBs), has attracted
special attention because TBs usually exhibit very low excess
energies, resulting in much higher thermal and mechanical
stabilities. Proactively deploying coherent, stable, and nano-
scale internal boundaries in a controlled manner can
substantially enhance strength,30,31 while maintaining satisfac-
tory ductility levels, along with appealing electrical and thermal
properties.32,33
Rapid progress has been made recently, for example, using
the direct-current electrodeposition method to embed highly
oriented nanoscale twins, a class of fatigue-resistant materials
that exhibited no accumulative damage under cyclic load.34
Atomistic simulations combined with TEM characterizations
revealed that the underlying mechanism is governed by a type
of dislocation unique to the highly oriented nanotwinned
microstructure. This discovery suggests a new research
direction toward the development of fatigue-resistant metallic
materials, which is of broad engineering importance as nearly
90% of service failures of metallic components and structures
are caused by fatigue failure.35 A new surface mechanical
grinding treatment (SMGT) method was developed to create a
type of material surface with gradient nanoscale grains and
record low friction coefficients even smaller than those of
ceramic materials.36 A direct-current electrodeposition techni-
que was used to introduce controllable structural gradients in
Cu (in both TB spacing and grain size) and show that the
gradient nanostructured material defies the rule of mixtures in
that it can achieve strength higher than that of the strongest
component.27 Recently, a gradient cell-structured multi-
principal element alloy was developed, in which atomic-scale
planar deformation faulting, rather than the conventional linear
dislocation, dominated the plastic deformation, leading to
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exceptional strain hardening behavior at 77 K.37 The gradient
induced additional strengthening and strain hardening, a
concept of general significance that suggests a route to
overcoming the strength−ductility trade-off by introducing
structural gradients at different length scales.
BIOINSPIRED MECHANOMATERIALS
Natural materials such as nacre, bone, bamboo, and silk exhibit
complex hierarchical structures spanning multiple length scales
by combining stiff and soft components.38 Through multiscale
hierarchical structures, the nano/microstructure at each level
can be adapted and optimized to meet local needs and
functions, leading to materials with mechanical properties that
are invariably superior compared to those of individual
constituents. 39 For example, bone is made of fragile
biominerals (hydroxyapatite) and soft proteins (collagen) but
achieves amazing toughness due to seven levels of hierarchical
structures (Figure 4a). Distinct toughening mechanisms
operate at various levels of hierarchy, encompassing molecular
uncoiling and intermolecular sliding to microscale fibrillar
sliding to macroscale crack deflection and crack bridging.39
Researchers have constructed artificial composites to mimic
the natural counterparts. By blending two common com-
pounds, aluminum oxide and poly(methyl methacrylate), into
ice-templated structures that mimic nacre, the resulting
material exhibited toughness exceeding that of the individual
constituent materials by more than 300 times.40 An enamel
analogue was developed, featuring essential hierarchical
structures at multiple scales, demonstrating high stiffness,
strength, toughness, hardness, and viscoelasticity that exceed
the properties of natural enamel and previously manufactured
bulk enamel-inspired materials.41 To emulate the hierarchical
assembly of anisotropic structures across multiple length scales
found in natural materials such as tendons, a freezing-assisted
salting-out strategy has been developed, enabling the
production of a multi-length-scale hierarchical hydrogel
architecture that is both strong and tough.42 This innovation
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Figure 4. Bioinspired mechanomaterials. (a) Seven level hierarchical structures in bone from nanoscale to mesoscale. Adapted with
permission from ref 38. Copyright 2015 Springer Nature. (b) Current nanofabrication approaches aimed at emulating the hierarchical
structures in the biological sensory system. Entire panel adapted with permission from ref 47. Copyright 2021 American Chemical Society.
Additional adaptations with permissions for specific subitems include: (b-i) Ref 48. Copyright 2017 Wiley-VCH. (b-ii) Ref 49. Copyright
2021 American Chemical Society. (b-iii) Ref 50. Copyright 2019 Springer Nature; (b-iv) Ref 51. Copyright 2020 Springer Nature.

has sparked significant advancements, such as the development
of a freeze-casting-assisted solution substitution (FASS)
strategy for creating hierarchical organo-hydrogels.43,44 Further
optimization of the FASS strategy has led to organo-hydrogels
that exhibit all-around properties including exceptional
mechanical performance and tolerance, as well as electric
sensing capabilities, with the potential to surpass the
performances of skin.45 In spite of an increasing number of
successful examples, man-made structural composites are still
far behind biological systems in terms of achieving the same
level of architectural control. Bioinspired mechanomaterials
will provide a promising route to address the unmet demands
for lighter, tougher, and stronger materials.
In addition to natural materials, evolution usually provides
stable, optimized, and energy efficient solutions for specific
functions in biological systems as well. Mimicking biological
traits can help with the design and manufacture of artificial
devices with exceptional targeted functionalities. For example,
inspired by the geometries of wind-dispersed seeds, which are
evolutionarily adapted for the dynamic stability and efficient
transport during passive free fall, mechanically guided assembly
of 3D micro/mesostructured techniques were used to fabricate
miniaturized 3D electronics fliers that are optimized for
controlled, unpowered flight in both natural environments or
urban settings.46 For the fabrication of 3D devices, a new
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strategy aligning with the mechanomaterials concept was
noteworthy. It focuses on programming the plastic strain in
homogeneous plastic films under peeling, enabling the precise
creation of various free-standing 3D frameworks from 2D
precursors. The technique is versatile and applicable to
numerous materials that can undergo plastic deformation,
highlighting the substantial potential of peeling-induced shape
morphing in the development of 3D devices.15 Inspired by the
supercontractile properties of spider dragline silk, a water-
responsive, shape-adaptive polymer (WRAP) film was
produced through a simple process: ingredients are mixed in
water, dried to form a film, and then subjected to mechanical
cold-drawing to achieve nanomicro structures that mimic those
of spider silk, enabling the WRAP film to maintain stability
under dry conditions and contract rapidly upon water
exposure. Such capabilities make it possible to create flexible,
shape-morphing interfaces between electronic devices and soft
biological tissues, addressing some of the challenges encoun-
tered in tissue-electronics integration.16 Enabled by nano-
technology, nanomechanics, electronics, and computer science,
artificial senses have been rapidly advancing toward com-
parable or even more powerful functionalities than the
biological counterparts.47−51 Like natural materials, biological
sensors typically exhibit hierarchically organized structures
across multiple scales, and as a result, fabrication techniques
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Figure 5. (a) Summary of open issues and challenges for mechanomaterials. (b) A closed-loop workflow of programming functional
mechanomaterials. Part b is adapted with permission from ref 12. Copyright 2021 Wiley-VCH.
Figure 6. Multiscale analysis of fracture in h-BN. (a) Coupling of FEA and DFT; (b) DFT-informed MD simulations. Adapted with
permission from ref 52. Copyright 2021 Springer Nature.
from different scales need to be developed and implemented to
reconstruct a similar pattern in the corresponding scales, as
illustrated in Figure 4b.
OUTLOOK
As an emerging paradigm shift, the field of mechanomaterials
has achieved remarkable successes in recent years. The existing
successful examples and increasing preliminary studies make
research in this field less risky. Mechanomaterials promise to
deliver practical solutions to programming targeted material
properties and/or functionalities for addressing strategic issues
in healthcare, energy, environment, and sustainability faced by
the world. Research in this field should not be limited to the
proposed areas listed in this perspective, which are limited to
only a few selected topics that are closely related to
nanomechanics. Although some advances in mechanomaterials
have been made, there are still numerous critical challenges
and open issues that need to be resolved. Here we outline
several key open issues and challenges that warrant attention
and innovation for further development (Figure 5a), with the
aim to achieve a closed-loop workflow for programming
functional mechanomaterials (Figure 5b).
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Theory, Modeling, and Design. Mechanomaterials is a
highly interdisciplinary field that connects multiple disciplines
including mechanics, materials science, chemistry, and biology.
It is thus naturally required to combine fragmented domain
knowledge from different disciplines and develop new
theoretical and computational modeling frameworks for
predicting the force−geometry−property−function relation-
ships that control materials properties and functionalities. In
simulation and computational modeling, there is an intrinsic
conflict of speed and accuracy that needs to be balanced. At
this point, truly multiscale simulations integrating different
length and time scales still remain a challenge. For example,
fracture of a material is an intrinsic multiscale problem (Figure
6)52 which therefore requires multiscale simulation techniques
including density function theory (DFT) and molecular
dynamics (MD) simulations and continuum finite element
analysis (FEA). As DFT is computationally expensive, the
electronic degree of freedom can only be considered in a
reactive region (e.g., crack tip), while the bulk of the material is
modeled based on continuum theories subject to appropriate
boundary conditions. MD simulation is a powerful tool in the
modeling of materials over a wide range of time and length
scales, from ab initio MD (∼100 atoms/10 ps) to all-atom MD
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(∼million atoms/100 ns) and to coarse-grained (CG) MD
(∼μm/μm). The main challenge for MD models is the rarity of
accurate interatomic potentials (Figure 6b). Recently, machine
learning has become an increasingly powerful tool to train the
first-principles data and construct the potential energy surface
for complex systems.53−55 On the other hand, machine
learning platforms combining fundamental nanomechanics
modeling and data-driven approaches could also accelerate
mechano-guided forward and inverse design of materials. The
latter approach is expected to play an increasingly important
role in unveiling the principles and force−geometry−property
relationship for mechanomaterials due to the almost
inexhaustible design space. Consistent and transferable design
tools/platforms across different scales also need to be
developed.
Fabrication and Characterization. To effectively control
force, geometry, and motion in programming materials
properties and functionalities at the nanoscale, novel precise
nanofabrication techniques will need to be developed.
Potential directions include biomanufacturing and synthetic-
biohybrid approaches to make manufacturing and program-
ming materials cost-effective and scalable. Characterization is
critical to quantify the force−geometry−property relationships,
as mechanomaterials usually involve multiple physics and
multiple length/time scales, for which integrated character-
izations with multiscale and multiphysics capabilities will need
to be developed. System level experiments with detailed
information at each scale are ideal but extremely challenging.
Thermal fluctuations and uncertainties can play governing
roles at thte nanoscale, which needs special attention.
In addition to the common challenges and opportunities
discussed above, we provide a more detailed exploration of the
following three research foci.
RESEARCH FOCUS 1: NANOARCHITECTED
METAMATERIALS
The architected materials are usually ultra-lightweight, strong,
durable, and robust materials with multifunctional and
multiphysical properties, thus exhibiting great potentials for a
wide range of applications including manufacturing, aerospace,
civil/infrastructural, chemical (catalysis), biomedical, and
energy applications. The holy grail of this focus is the ability
to create and program nano-, micro-, and macro-architectured
mechanical metamaterials with targeted properties that go
beyond what exists in nature and approach theoretical limits,
hence addressing the scientific question: How to design and
fabricate mechanical metamaterials to achieve a set of targeted,
often conflicting, materials properties?
Additive manufacturing techniques have facilitated the
development of nano- and hierarchically architected materials,
endowed with extreme properties (e.g., ultra-lightweight,
theoretical strength, superior energy absorption, flaw tolerant,
impact resistant, etc.). However, high-resolution, low-cost,
energy-efficient, upscalable manufacturing technologies for
mechanical metamaterials are still lacking and will need to be
developed. It would be extremely challenging to achieve these
goals simultaneously. As an alternative strategy, it may be
beneficial to explore various directions tailored to specific
applications. Currently, the two-photon lithography direct laser
writing system used in the lab usually does not permit the
fabrication of lattices with strut dimensions smaller than 100
nm. More innovations in nanofabrication will be required to
design and deploy nanoscale geometrical features, beyond the
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atomic layer deposition and pyrolysis. For additive manufactur-
ing, well-controlled topology is still difficult and the diversity of
structures that could be fabricated is still very limited.56 To
fabricate hierarchical structures, it is usually necessary to
combine different processing techniques, which is very
challenging. The scalability of fabrication techniques has
been a long-standing issue. As of now, only powder-based
3D printing techniques have potential for industrial applica-
tions, which calls for more efforts on scalability.
The enormous design space of nano-, micro-, and macro-
architecturing has largely remained unexplored, partly due to
the incomplete knowledge in an emerging field of research. To
fill the gap, innovations in modeling, design, fabrication,
characterization, and testing methods for nano-, micro-, and
macroarchitecturing will be required. Testing and character-
ization techniques including an in situ nanomechanics
laboratory with multiscale characterization capabilities will be
as important as precision fabrication, as accurately measuring
the mechanical properties and characterizing the deformation
features are key to understanding the underlying deformation
mechanisms and helping with theoretical modeling, simulation,
design, and optimization. Multiscale simulation platforms
combining fundamental nanomechanics modeling, mechano-
guided forward and inverse design, and data-driven approaches
will be needed. Currently, there exist very few theories and
modeling tools to aid in the design and fabrication of
mechanical metamaterials, yet the materials design space is
almost inexhaustible. Multiscale and multiphysics design
platforms, empowered with the state-of-the-art data-driven
approaches, will be necessary for a closed-loop workflow of
programming mechanical metamaterials.
RESEARCH FOCUS 2: GRADIENT NANOSTRUCTURED
METALS/ALLOYS
The gradient nanostructured metals/alloys exhibit capability to
evade the strength−ductility trade-off; the excellent mechanical
properties including high strength, high ductility, high
toughness, hydrogen tolerant, and fatigue/wear resistant
make them ideal for the future safety-critical and load-bearing
applications including aerospace, automobile, microelectronics,
energy storage/transport, and sporting industries. The goal of
this focus is to be able to create gradient nanostructured
materials that evade material property trade-offs (e.g., strength
vs ductility, strength vs toughness, etc.) and address the
scientific question: How to design and fabricate gradient
nanostructures to overcome the conventional material property
trade-offs for engineering applications?
Recent developments of physical or chemical deposition
methods have facilitated the creation of gradient nano-
structured metals/alloys with enhanced combinations of
mechanical properties including high strength, good ductility,
improved fracture toughness, fatigue resistance, and record-
breaking friction properties. However, current processing
techniques fall short of precisely controlling structural
gradients across the nano-, micro-, and macroscale, limiting
the extent and distribution of these gradients in manufactured
materials. In addition, current gradient nanostructured
materials are still limited to a few exemplary cases. New
fabrication processes that offer precise control of structural
gradients at multiple levels will need to be developed. The
general structure−property relationships in gradient nano-
structured materials remain largely unexplored. Innovations in
modeling, design, fabrication, characterization, and testing
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methods for gradient nanostructured mechanomaterials will be
required. There are currently no theories that can explicitly
account for materials with gradient nanostructures. Testing
and characterization at atomistic resolution is required to help
clarify the nanostructure evolution and establish intrinsic
property−performance relationships.
RESEARCH FOCUS 3: BIOINSPIRED HIERARCHICAL
MATERIALS/DEVICES
Bioinspired materials/devices are usually flaw-tolerant, energy
efficient, sustainable, environment friendly, and biocompatible
and are ideal for future manufacturing, civil/infrastructural,
chemical (catalysis), biomedical, and energy applications.
Thus, the objective of this focus is the creation of materials/
devices with properties/functionalities matching or surpassing
their natural counterparts, including energy efficiency,
sustainability, environment friendliness, biocompatibility, etc.
Here the key scientific questions are the following: What are
the biological principles/strategies and how to translate the
associated natural design motifs and fabricate materials into
sustainable infrastructures?
Natural systems typically consist of a limited number of
components with relatively poor intrinsic properties, yet they
achieve superior properties through hierarchical structures that
range from the nano- to micro- to macroscale; these materials
provide an ideal platform to probe and optimize fundamental
mechanisms of force−geometry control from nanoscale and
up. Translating these natural design motifs into practical
applications necessitates a profound understanding of the
mechanical behavior of hierarchically structured materials at
the nanoscale, an area that remains largely unexplored;
innovations in modeling, design, characterization, and testing
methods will also be required. Currently, a systematic
methodology to address the structural complexity across
dimensions from the nanoscale to the macroscale is lacking.
Additionally, there is an absence of a universal modeling and
design platform dedicated to optimizing the properties of
hierarchically structured materials. Machine learning could be a
powerful approach as it exhibits unparalleled capability for
effectively and efficiently extracting biological principles and
designing bioinspired materials.57
Producing bioinspired mechanomaterials on a large scale
and in bulk quantities remains a significant challenge. Advances
in bio-, biohybrid, and synthetic manufacturing and processing
techniques�such as biomimetic mineralization, freeze casting,
and additive manufacturing�are essential to enable the
programmable integration of nanometric features into
structures at larger scales. A noteworthy method for bottom-
up fabrication of bioinspired mechanomaterials is DNA
nanotechnology.58,59 DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecules,
originally as the carrier of genetic information in biology, self-
assemble into simple and robust secondary structures (e.g.,
double-stranded helices) according to the nucleotide sequence
of constituent DNA strands. The DNA nanotechnology uses
DNA as sequence-programmable molecular building blocks to
construct molecular-scale structural motifs as well as self-
contained DNA origami60 of versatile shapes spanning a few
hundreds of nanometers.59 These DNA motifs and origami are
further used as structural modules to build microscale or even
macroscale materials like DNA crystals61 and mechanical
metamaterials based on DNA hydrogels.62 This DNA
nanotechnology thus allows the designed nanoscale geometries
to be deployed for bottom-up fabrication of soft DNA
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mechanomaterials�in a sequence-programmed way through
convenient self-assembly processes. The DNA nanotechnology
also has potential for fabricating solid mechanomaterials, e.g.,
through DNA origami-templated mineralization63 or by use of
DNA origami as nanostructured templates64 for top-down
fabrication methods like lithography (and orientation-con-
trolled arrangement65 of DNA origami arrays is also achieved
on lithography-patterned solid surfaces).
Deploying mechanical force during the fabrication of DNA
mechanomaterials is possible too by deploying force-capable
DNA molecular motors. A possible route is to integrate the
DNA molecular motors with DNA origami into force-
generating structural modules that might further open new
assembly pathways inaccessible at zero force during the
hierarchical assembly of DNA mechanomaterials. The motors
also can be used to customize the postfabrication behaviors of
these materials. In the end, the DNA motors may be removed
(by convenient strand displacement) or remain as functional
components (e.g., in muscle-like mechanomaterials). The field
of rationally designed DNA molecular motors66 has advanced
from early simplistic burning-bridge DNA molecular walkers to
sophisticated DNA molecular motors capable of sustainable,
scalable, and directional action under light irradiations or with
supply of chemical fuels. These advanced DNA molecular
motors produce nontrivial force (a few piconewtons per motor
from a recent single-molecule study67) and were recently
integrated68,69 with DNA origami successfully. In the long run,
the marriage between the force-capable DNA molecular
motors and the DNA nanotechnology of rich designability
and versatile integrability with other materials (peptides,70
synthetic polymers,16 etc.) promises a solution to the challenge
of force-deployed fabrication of soft mechanomaterials.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Authors
Xiaodong Chen − Innovative Center for Flexible Devices
(iFLEX), Max Planck-NTU Joint Laboratory for Artificial
Senses, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore;
orcid.org/0000-0002-3312-1664; Email: chenxd@
ntu.edu.sg
Huajian Gao − School of Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering, College of Engineering, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore 639798, Singapore; Mechano-X
Institute, Applied Mechanics Laboratory, Department of
Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084,
China; orcid.org/0000-0002-8656-846X;
Email: gao.huajian@tsinghua.edu.cn
Authors
Guijin Zou − School of Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering, College of Engineering, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore 639798, Singapore; orcid.org/
0000-0003-0047-7012
Chorng Haur Sow − Department of Physics, National
University of Singapore, Singapore 117542, Singapore;
orcid.org/0000-0001-6385-3017
Zhisong Wang − Department of Physics, National University
of Singapore, Singapore 117542, Singapore; orcid.org/
0000-0001-5707-5909
Complete contact information is available at:
https://pubs.acs.org/10.1021/acsnano.4c03194
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.4c03194
ACS Nano 2024, 18, 11492−11502
ACS Nano www.acsnano.org
Author Contributions
The manuscript was written through contributions from all
authors. All authors have given approval to the final version of
the manuscript.
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
This is an adapted academic version of Chapter 2 from
“National Research Foundation, Singapore, 2022. A Founda-
tional Research Capabilities Report on Nanomechanics.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
G.Z. and H.G. acknowledge support from the Ministry of
Education, Singapore under its MOE AcRF Tier 3 Award
MOE-MOET32022-0002. The authors have benefitted
tremendously from comments, suggestions, discussions, and
reviews from members of the Nanomechanics Foundational
Research Capabilities Team, National Research Foundation
(NRF), Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore, as well as
international experts through the NRF nanomechanics work-
shop, panel discussions.
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