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Abstract Although metal-polymer heterogeneous structures possess exceptional mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties, their fabrication remains challenging due to the reactive nature of the materials and the risk of property alteration during manufacturing. This study investigates the printing quality of metal-polymer structures fabricated using electrically assisted heterogeneous material printing (EF-HMP), focusing on the relationship between the polymer and metal layers and their electrical properties. The developed printing solution enables the transport of metal ions for metal printing onto a polymer matrix under a controlled electrical field. The study emphasizes the critical role of polymer microstructures in influencing metal electrodeposition, including printing time and morphology. Three microstructure geometries—rectangular, trapezoidal, and semicircular—were designed based on manufacturability and surface-area-to-volume ratio and evaluated for their impact on metal-polymer fabrication via EF-HMP process. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and electrical conductivity tests revealed that the semicircular microstructure provided the best printing performance, forming a robust metal structure in a short time and achieving the lowest resistance of 12 kΩ. This research highlights the potential of EF-HMP for metal-polymer fabrication, offering new insights into the influence of interfacial polymer microstructures on metal printing at room temperature. These findings pave the way for optimizing the design and functionality of metal-polymer components in metamaterials, thermal management, and flexible electronics applications. 

Abstract Natural organisms have evolved a series of versatile functional biomaterials and structures to cope with survival crises in their living environment, exhibiting outstanding properties such as superhydrophobicity, anisotropy, and mechanical reinforcement, which have provided abundant inspiration for the design and fabrication of next‐generation multi‐functional devices. However, the lack of available materials and limitations of traditional manufacturing methods for complex multiscale structures have hindered the progress in bio‐inspired manufacturing of functional structures. As a revolutionary emerging manufacturing technology, additive manufacturing (i.e., 3D printing) offers high design flexibility and manufacturing freedom, providing the potential for the fabrication of intricate, multiscale, hierarchical, and multi‐material structures. Herein, a comprehensive review of current 3D printing of surface/interface structures, covering the applied materials, designs, and functional applications is provided. Several bio‐inspired surface structures that have been created using 3D printing technology are highlighted and categorized based on their specific properties and applications, some properties can be applied to multiple applications. The optimized designs of these 3D‐printed bio‐inspired surfaces offer a promising prospect of low‐cost, high efficiency, and excellent performance. Finally, challenges and opportunities in field of fabricating functional surface/interface with more versatile functional material, refined structural design, and better cost‐effective are discussed. 

Abstract The creatures in nature exhibit dynamic responses to environmental stimuli through their hierarchical architectures. Benefiting from gradient porous structures,Delosperma nakurenseopens its protective valves of the seed capsules when hydrated with liquid water, increasing the likelihood that seeds are dispersed under conditions favorable to germination. Here, a versatile 4D printing technology, namely liquid crystal templating‐assisted vat photopolymerization (LCT‐VPP), which can fabricate bioinspired porous structures with hygro‐responsive capabilities by utilizing photopolymerization induced phase separation (PIPS) and liquid crystals (LCs) electro‐alignment is reported. PIPS within the LCs/nanofiller composites leads to the formation of submicrometer gradient porous structures after extracting nonreactive LCs. The electric field enables the programmable alignment of LCs, which in turn elongates the porous structures and aligns nanofillers. In addition, the programmable arranged nanofillers by the templated LCs enhance the degree of deformation and thus the resulting composites exhibit high shape control accuracy, fast dynamic response, and high reliability. This study opens a perspective for designing bioinspired smart materials with the special spatial distribution of porous structures. The results reported here can give rise to various potential applications in soft robots, smart anticounterfeiting devices, flexible sensors, and ultrafiltration membrane.