Multi-Material Additively Manufactured Magnetoelectric Architectures with a Structure-Dependent Mechanical-to-Electrical Conversion Capability

Multi-material additive manufacturing has become a promising trend in fabricating advanced functional architectures due to its controllable design of diverse material species and novel structures. It remains challenging to endow the multi-material components with a mechanical-to-electrical conversion capability. This study reports on multi-material selectively laser sintered magnetoelectric architectures that can convert mechanical energy to electricity in a structure-dependent manner. The principal aim is to establish a relationship between the electrical output and the printed structures by fabricating a series of porous architectures with diverse structural parameters. The findings show that the output voltage increases with the decrease of the elastic modulus and the increase of the magnetic height, which has been analyzed by numerical simulation. Owing to the mechanical-to-electrical conversion capability, a pair of multi-material printed sneakers with the functionalities of power generation and gait analysis has been prepared. The voltage output reaches as high as ≈2 V, which can lighten a light-emitting diode lamp when a user is running. The described solution in this work has offered an exploration framework for the design, fabrication, and application prospects of multi-material additively manufactured architectures.