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# Crystallography-inspired hierarchical multiscale mechanical metamaterials

## Details

**Authors** Jun Cai, Youjian Li, Alireza Seyedkanani, Pengxu Lu, Bendaoud Nohair, Abdolhamid Akbarzadeh

**Year** 2026

**Publisher** npj Metamaterials

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Materials Science

**Applied** false

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1038/s44455-026-00028-7) 
10.1038/s44455-026-00028-7

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To design metamaterials whose mechanical performance is tuned by nesting structural organization across multiple length scales, from nanoscale crystallography to macroscale architecture.

### How they did it (methods)

Molecular dynamics simulations of nickel-based nano-architected structures combined with 3D-printing experiments on crystallography-inspired hierarchical polymeric metamaterials, varying topology, density, crystallinity, and grain size.

### What they found (results)

Organizing an inherently brittle polymer into a crystallography-inspired hierarchical, multiscale architecture produced topology-dependent stiffness and strength together with ductile deformation and enhanced toughness not present in the unstructured bulk polymer.

## Commentary

### In short

A demonstration that a whole material built from nested part-structures at multiple scales behaves mechanically unlike its constituent material or any single scale alone.

**Patterns it shows** S

**Added** 2026-09-20

**How to cite this** Jun Cai, Youjian Li, Alireza Seyedkanani, Pengxu Lu, Bendaoud Nohair, Abdolhamid Akbarzadeh (2026). Crystallography-inspired hierarchical multiscale mechanical metamaterials. npj Metamaterials.