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Natural and biological materials are designed from complex nanostructures and architectures to achieve multi-functionality, fault tolerance and shape remodeling.  For example, the microstructure of compact bone demonstrates a repertoire of design motifs, having heterogeneous hierarchical morphologies at various length scales, to achieve toughness values several orders of magnitude higher than its constituents.

On the other hand, the recent discovery of 1D and 2D nanostructures presents a unique and timely opportunity for manufacturing high-performance materials. Bio-inspired material designs, combined with synthesis and assembly of nano building blocks could enable new engineering materials.

The Kinetic Materials Research Group is focused on (i) engineering materials by synthesizing and assembling nanostructured building blocks into larger scales, (ii) modeling, understanding and controlling the mechanical behavior of these materials and (iii) demonstrating new applications of these materials.

The current research projects in our group include the synthesis and assembly of carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers, metal nanowires, composites and architectured materials, as well as the understanding of load transfer, transport mechanisms and wave propagation among them.

Our group expertise is at the intersection of materials processing and machine design.