EAGER: Liquid Crystal Disclination as a New Design Paradigm for Nano-Architected Mechanical Metamaterials

Despite advances in additive manufacturing of 3D porous lattices, printing resolution remains below the length scales where the nano-size effect, and the resulting “smaller-is-stronger” behavior can be exploited. This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) award supports research to develop new scalable nanofabrication knowledge through a bottom-up strategy in which nanoscale architecture is programmed by well-controlled material self-organization rather than a toolpath. The objective is to enable lightweight, damage-tolerant porous polymer lattices whose performance is governed jointly by architecture and nanoscale feature size. If successful, this work will expand the manufacturing toolkit for next-generation nano-architected materials with impact across energy technologies, protective systems, and resilient structures. The project includes training for students in integrated polymer synthesis and physics, liquid-crystal science, nanofabrication, nanoscale characterization, and micromechanical testing, and will expand participation in STEM through undergraduate research and pre-college outreach. This research will pursue a high-risk, high-reward bottom-up nano-manufacturing strategy that uses 3D defect networks that spontaneously form in chiral blue phase liquid crystals as nanoscale templates for polymer assembly, enabling the fabrication of porous nanolattice architected materials. The central hypothesis is that these soft disclination “blueprints” can be transduced into solid, shape-defined polymer networks, providing a nanofabrication route that can surpass conventional top-down manufacturing. The approach relies on precisely controlled photopolymerization of reactive monomers within a non-reactive blue phase liquid crystal host, driving polymerization-induced phase separation and preferential formation of crosslinked polymer within locally disordered disclination cores with a theoretical core diameter of approximately 10 nm. Two integrated research goals will establish foundational process-structure-property relationships. First, the project will explore how monomer structure and photopolymerization kinetics govern phase separation, selective localization within defect cores, and structural retention, and how solvent-mediated template removal impacts nanolattice integrity. Second, thermodynamic control parameters of the blue phase liquid crystal host, including chirality, temperature, and surface anchoring, will be tuned to program lattice topology and length scales. Finally, this study will quantify how architecture and nanoscale dimensions control macroscopic mechanical response using in situ scanning electron microscope micropillar compression. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2621810 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: MONIROSADAT SADATI | Institution: University of South Carolina at Columbia, COLUMBIA, SC | Award Amount: $200,000 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2621810 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2621810.html