Natural Cornstalk Pith as an Effective Energy Absorbing Cellular Material  

作　　者：Lilong Zhang Zengqian Liu Da Jiao Jian Zhang Shaogang Wang Hui Zhang Zhefeng Zhang 

机构地区：[1]Key Laboratory for Electromagnetic Processing of Materials,Ministry of Education,Northeastern University,Shenyang 110819,China [2]Institute of Metal Research,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Shenyang 110016,China [3]School of Materials Science and Engineering,University of Science and Technology of China,Hefei 230026,China

出　　处：《Journal of Bionic Engineering》2021年第3期600-610,共11页仿生工程学报（英文版）

基　　金：The authors are grateful for the financial support by National Key R&D Program of China under Grant Number 2020YFA0710404;the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant number 51871216;the LiaoNing Revitalization Talents Program,the State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials at Donghua University;the Opening Project of Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of High-End Structural Materials under grant number hsm 1801,the Lu Jiaxi International Team Program supported by the K.C.Wong Education Foundation and CAS,and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS.

摘　　要：The replacement of synthetic foam materials using natural biological ones is of great significance for saving energy/resources and reducing environmental pollutions.Here we characterized the microstructure and mechanical properties of natural cornstalk pith,which has a large annual output yet lacks an effective exploitation,and evaluated its feasibility for applications as a substitute for synthetic foam materials.The cornstalk pith was revealed to be a cellular material composed of closed cells elongated along the growth direction of com plant and reinforced by well-aligned vascular bundles penetrating the foam matrix.The compressive behavior is featured by a stable stress plateau which is favorable for energy absorption with its mechanical properties largely dependent on the hydration state and loading configuration.In particular,the initial dimension and mechanical properties of cornstalk pith can be effectively recovered after deformation simply by hydration treatment owing to swelling effect caused by the turgor pressure from osmosis.The cornstalk pith demonstrates an outstanding combination of low density and high energy absorption efficiency among various foam materials,specifically with its plateau stress and energy absorption comparable or even superior to those of some typical synthetic foam materials.These along with the huge resources and good biodegradability make it a promising natural energy absorbing cellular material for replacing synthetic counterparts.

关 键 词：cornstalk pith energy absorption foam HYDRATION SELF-RECOVERY 

分 类 号：R318.08[医药卫生—生物医学工程]