Butterfly‐Inspired Hierarchical Hybrid Composites for Lightweight Structural Thermal Management Applications
Nello D. Sansone, Rafaela Aguiar, Mahmoud Embabi, N.K. Cheung, Anthony V. Tuccitto, Nathan R. S. Chang, Matthew Leroux, Patrick Lee
Abstract
Abstract Stringent environmental policies and sustainability targets are driving the adoption of lightweight materials in high‐performance transportation and defense sectors. Inspired by nature's unparalleled engineering, this work introduces butterfly‐inspired hybrid composites that emulate the multifunctional performance of natural architectures. Specifically, these composites are reinforced with hierarchical fibrous assemblies comprised of nano‐sized graphene nanoplatelets covalently bonded onto micro‐sized glass fibers, emulating the hierarchical architecture of butterfly legs. Additionally, sandwich‐structured composites are designed to mimic the alternating rigid and porous layered scales of butterfly wings, featuring a foamed composite core sandwiched between solid composite skins, leading to superior mechanical and thermal management performance. Compared to the current industrial composite substitute for metallic structural components, these hybrid composites are tailorable to achieve improvements up to 32%, 36%, and 116% in specific tensile strength, specific flexural strength, and impact strength, respectively, as well as 66% in thermal insulation and 62% in thermal management performance, with a 38% weight reduction. These advancements stem from the detailed structure‐property designs, spanning across multiple length‐scales, formulating a fundamental understanding of how to tune performance to meet stringent requirements. Ultimately, these cost‐effective, industry‐ready butterfly‐inspired materials produce lightweight, multifunctional components that showcase the potential of biomimicry in advancing sustainable engineering solutions.