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Abstract Carbon micro/nanolattice materials, defined as three-dimensional (3D) architected metamaterials made of micro/nanoscale carbon constituents, have demonstrated exceptional mechanical properties, including ultrahigh specific strength, stiffness, and extensive deformability through experiments and simulations. The ductility of these carbon micro/nanolattices is also important for robust performance. In this work, we present a novel design of using reversible snap-through instability to engineer energy dissipation in 3D graphene nanolattices. Inspired by the shell structure of flexible straws, we construct a type of graphene counterpart via topological design and demonstrate its associated snap-through instability through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. One-dimensional (1D) straw-like carbon nanotube (SCNT) and 3D graphene nanolattices are constructed from a unit cell. These graphene nanolattices possess multiple stable states and are elastically reconfigurable. A theoretical model of the 1D bi-stable element chain is adopted to understand the collective deformation behavior of the nanolattice. Reversible pseudoplastic behavior with a finite hysteresis loop is predicted and further validated via MD. Enhanced by these novel energy dissipation mechanisms, the 3D graphene nanolattice shows good tolerance of crack-like flaws and is predicted to approach a specific energy dissipation of 233 kJ/kg in a loading cycle with no permanent damage (one order higher than the energy absorbed by carbon steel at failure, 16 kJ/kg). This study provides a novel mechanism for 3D carbon nanolattice to dissipate energy with no accumulative damage and improve resistance to fracture, broadening the promising application of 3D carbon in energy absorption and programmable materials. 

Traditionally, precipitates in a material are thought to serve as obstacles to dislocation glide and cause hardening of the material. This conventional wisdom, however, fails to explain recent discoveries of ultrahigh-strength and large-ductility materials with a high density of nanoscale precipitates, as obstacles to dislocation glide often lead to high stress concentration and even microcracks, a cause of progressive strain localization and the origin of the strength–ductility conflict. Here we reveal that nanoprecipitates provide a unique type of sustainable dislocation sources at sufficiently high stress, and that a dense dispersion of nanoprecipitates simultaneously serve as dislocation sources and obstacles, leading to a sustainable and self-hardening deformation mechanism for enhanced ductility and high strength. The condition to achieve sustainable dislocation nucleation from a nanoprecipitate is governed by the lattice mismatch between the precipitate and matrix, with stress comparable to the recently reported high strength in metals with large amount of nanoscale precipitates. It is also shown that the combination of Orowan’s precipitate hardening model and our critical condition for dislocation nucleation at a nanoprecipitate immediately provides a criterion to select precipitate size and spacing in material design. The findings reported here thus may help establish a foundation for strength–ductility optimization through densely dispersed nanoprecipitates in multiple-element alloy systems.