Engineering the shape and structure of materials by fractal cut

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the transformation of a sheet of material into a wide range of desired shapes and patterns by introducing a set of simple cuts in a multilevel hierarchy with different motifs. Each choice of hierarchical cut motif and cut level allows the material to expand into a unique structure with a unique set of properties. We can reverse-engineer the desired expanded geometries to find the requisite cut pattern to produce it without changing the physical properties of the initial material. The concept was experimentally realized and applied to create an electrode that expands to 800% the original area with only very minor stretching of the underlying material. The generality of our approach greatly expands the design space for materials so that they can be tuned for diverse applications.