Origami metamaterials - an update

Origami Metamaterials and their properties

Origami metamaterials - an update

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• The story: Scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras have developed materials, called Origami metamaterials which could have several uses.
• Origami Metamaterials: These combine the Japanese art of paper folding (origami) and the existing material of choice and fold it to obtain desired properties. Researchers developed a special class of origami metamaterials which show a constant value of Poisson Ratio (ratio of the deformation along the force and the deformation in a direction lateral) when subjected to stress. It can be positive or negative. When a material is crushed or stretched along a particular direction, it undergoes a modification in the perpendicular, or lateral, direction. In order to be useful, materials need to maintain a constant Poisson ratio when they crumble under pressure but they are prone not to do so, and the Poisson ratio varies as they deform. The benefit is that the observed property does not depend on whether it is made from a sheet of paper, polymer or metal but under impact the sheet folds up along the creases.
• Metamaterials: "Metamaterials" are smart materials that have a wide range of properties and can be so different from each other that there isn’t a definition for them, although what they all have in common is that they are from an artificial origin. This means that they aren’t found in nature and have been created by people. These have unusual electromagnetic properties, coming from their structure and arrangement and not from their composition. This is similar to what happens with graphite, diamond and graphene, since they are all made of carbon, but due to their structure, they have very different properties. One of the properties that can vary the metamaterials can be, for example, that the material has a negative refractive index. This makes these materials of great importance in optics and electromagnetism applications.
• Uses: In Optical filtering, medical devices, remote aerospace operations, sensor detectors, solar power management, crowd control, radomes, antenna lenses, and even earthquake protection. Lenses made of metamaterials may even enable imaging below the diffraction limit that prevents conventional optical lenses from magnifying any further.
• Summary: Origami based mechanical metamaterials can be applied in many fields. Today technology effect humans in every aspect of life. Government should realise the importance of new innovation and research and promote the talent required for it.   
• EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the properties of newly invented "origami metamaterials". (2) New materials being developed in the labs of the world will make mankind settle Moon and Mars one day. Do you agree? Explain.

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