Optimal isotropic, reusable truss lattice material with near-zero Poisson’s ratio

Cork is a natural amorphous material with near-zero Poisson’s ratio that is ubiquitously used for sealing glass bottles. It is an anisotropic, transversally isotropic, composite that can hardly be scaled down. Here, we propose a new class of isotropic and reusable cork-like metamaterial that is designed from a hybrid truss-lattice material to show an isotropic Poisson’s ratio close to zero. Optimization is conducted using a multi-objective genetic algorithm, assisted by an elliptical basis function neural network, and coupled with finite element simulations. The optimal micro-structured metamaterial, fabricated by two-photon lithography with a lattice constant of 300 μm, has an almost isotropic Poisson’s ratio smaller than 0.08 in all directions. It can recover 96.6% of its original shape after a compressional test exceeding 20% strain.