Naturally architected microstructures in structural materials via additive manufacturing

Despite recent advances in our understanding of the unique mechanical behavior of natural structural materials such as nacre and human bone, traditional manufacturing strategies limit our ability to mimic such nature-inspired structures using existing structural materials and manufacturing processes. To this end, we introduce a customizable single-step approach for additively fabricating geometrically-free metallic-based structural composites showing directionally-tailored, location-specific properties. To exemplify this capability, we present a layered metal-ceramic composite not previously reported exhibiting significant directional and site-specific dependence of properties along with crack arrest ability difficult to achieve using traditional manufacturing approaches. Our results indicate that nature-inspired microstructural designs towards directional properties can be realized in structural components using a novel additive manufacturing approach.