Guided mechanical self-assembly of bubbles in fiber arrays

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how guiding bubble formation in fiber arrays enables the controlled self-assembly of ordered foam structures, including Kelvin and hexagonal packings, advancing the fabrication of hierarchical materials.

Contribution

It introduces a method to control foam architecture via fiber array-guided bubble self-assembly, achieving ordered crystalline structures that are difficult to produce spontaneously.

Findings

Identification of Kelvin and hexagonal crystalline foam signatures

Controlled formation of ordered foam structures in fiber arrays

Potential for creating hierarchical materials with specific architectures

Abstract

Spontaneous mechanical self-assembly of monodisperse bubbles generally leads to disordered foams at low density: producing crystalline structures such as Kelvin foams has proven to be challenging experimentally, despite them being a minimum of energy. Here we show how bubbling in different fiber arrays controls foam architectures through a guided mechanical self-assembly. Analyzing X-ray tomography scans of solidified polymer foams using Steinhardt's parameters highlights clear signatures of Kelvin and hexagonal close packing crystalline foams, opening a novel route towards ordered hierarchical materials.