Auxetic Nanomaterials: Recent Progress and Future Development

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in auxetic nanomaterials, exploring their atomistic mechanisms, experimental evidence, and future research directions at the intersection of nanomaterials and auxetic properties.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the emerging field of auxetic nanomaterials, highlighting atomistic mechanisms and experimental findings that were previously scattered.

Findings

Identification of atomistic mechanisms causing auxeticity in nanomaterials

Compilation of experimental evidence for auxetic nanomaterials

Discussion of future prospects and challenges in the field

Abstract

Auxetic materials (materials with negative Poisson's ratio) and nanomaterials have independently been for many years two of the most active research fields in material science. Recently, these formerly independent fields have begun to intersect in new and interesting ways due to the recent discovery of auxeticity in nanomaterials like graphene, metal nanoplates, black phosphorus, and others. Here we review the research emerging at the intersection of auxeticity and nanomaterials. We first survey the atomistic mechanisms, both intrinsic and extrinsic, that have been found, primarily through atomistic simulations, to cause auxeticity in nanomaterials. We then outline the available experimental evidence for auxetic nanomaterials. In order to lay the groundwork for future work in this exciting area, we close by discussing several future prospects as well as the current challenges in this field.