Specific strength (strength/density) is a crucial factor while designing high load-bearing structures for aerospace and defense applications. The strength of the material can be enhanced by blending it with high strength components and/or fillers, but both options have limitations, such as that the materials can still fail due to poor filler and matrix interactions. Therefore, there is a great interest in enhancing the strength of materials by playing with topology/geometry. In this work, we have investigated the mechanical properties of zeolite-templated carbon nanotube networks (CNTnets). Atomic models were used to generate macro models that were 3D printed. The mechanical properties of CNTnets were investigated through fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations and load-bearing tests. Our results show that several aspects of mechanical behavior proved to be scale-independent. The 3D printed structures were able to support high compressive loads without structural failure. Such complex architectures can be exploited for ultralight aerospace and automotive parts.

在为航空航天和国防应用设计高承载结构时，比强度（强度/密度）是至关重要的因素。可以通过将其与高强度组分和/或填料混合来增强材料的强度，但是这两种选择都有局限性，例如由于填料和基体之间的不良相互作用，材料仍然会失效。因此，对于通过玩拓扑/几何来增强材料的强度非常感兴趣。在这项工作中，我们研究了沸石模板碳纳米管网络（CNTnets）的机械性能。原子模型用于生成3D打印的宏模型。CNTnets的机械性能通过完全原子分子动力学模拟和承重测试进行了研究。我们的结果表明，力学行为的几个方面被证明是与规模无关的。3D打印的结构能够承受高压缩载荷而不会出现结构故障。这种复杂的体系结构可用于超轻型航空航天和汽车零件。