About

Our research group is located in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. We foster an interdisciplinary research environment where scientists and engineers explore fundamental and applied aspects of soft materials. The Soft Materials and Structures Lab is located in the Durham Hall in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Research Focus

Our research lies at the intersection of soft materials, mechanics, and functionality. Through precise experiments and analyses, we study and exploit the fascinating interplay between material composition, geometry, and programmed deformations. This interdisciplinary and biomimetic approach aims to create advanced, multifunctional materials with novel combinations of mechanical and functional properties, including switchable and intelligent adhesives, stretchable electronics and soft robotics, and adaptive and morphing materials.

Recent News Highlights

6/2025 – Our work on recyclable and healable liquid metal-vitrimer electronics is named the Discovery of the Week by Forbes.
6/2025 – New paper on Metamaterial Adhesives-Integrated Triboelectric Nanogenerators with Enhanced and Programmable Charge Generation and Adhesion published with Hoon Eui Jeong in Advanced Functional Materials.
6/2025 – New paper on Liquid Metal-Vitrimer Conductive Composite for Recyclable and Resilient Electronics published with Josh Worch in Advanced Materials. See the story on TechExplore, Interesting Engineering, VT, and more.
6/2025 – Dane is selected to the PMSE Breakthroughs in Polymers (BIP) Forum, through the Polymer Science, Materials, and Engineering (PMSE) Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
5/2025 – New paper on Enabling Additively Manufactured Electronics Through Laser Induced Graphene and Copper Deposition on Fully-Aromatic Polyimides published with Chris Williams in Advanced Materials Technologies
4/2025 – Prof. Bartlett is recognized with the Virginia Tech Commercialization Champions Award. See the story.
3/2025 – New paper on Combining and Decoupling Rigid and Soft Grippers to Enhance Robotic Manipulation published with Dylan Losey in Soft Robotics.
3/2025 – New review paper on Connecting the Dots: Sintering of Liquid Metal Particles for Soft and Stretchable Conductors published with Michael Dickey in Chemical Reviews.
2/2025 – The group attendees the Adhesion Society Annual Meeting and makes several oral and poster presentations.
1/2025 – New paper on The magneto-mechanical coupling of multiphase magnetorheological elastomers published with Nathan Lazarus in the Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter.
12/2024 – New paper on Liquid metal pumps itself out of gels to make artificial vasculature published in Nature as a News & Views.
12/2024 – Prof. Bartlett is recognized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) as a Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering. Read the story here.
12/2024 – Prof. Bartlett is recognized as a MRS Early Career Distinguished Presenter.
12/2024 – New paper on Anisotropic and Heterogeneous Thermal Conductivity in Programmed Liquid Metal Composites Through Direct Ink Writing published with Eric J. Markvicka in Advanced Functional Materials and featured as a cover article.
12/2024 – New book chapter on Soft robotics: a futuristic extension of stretchable electronics technology published in the book Stretchable Electronics.
11/2024 – New paper on High cycle performance of twisted and coiled polymer actuators published with Sameh Tawfick in Sensors and Actuators A: Physical.
10/2024 – New paper on Soft electronic vias and interconnects through rapid three-dimensional assembly of liquid metal microdroplets published in Nature Electronics and featured on the cover. See the story on TechExplore, VT, and more. Read the Behind the paper.
10/2024 – New paper on Octopus-inspired adhesives with switchable attachment to challenging underwater surfaces published in Advanced Science. See the story on MIT Technology Review, Ars Technica, VT, and more.
10/2024 – New paper on Programmable adhesion through triangular and hierarchical cuts in metamaterial adhesives published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.
9/2024 – John Joyce receives the Best Poster award at the Flip The Fair event.
9/2024 – New paper on Multiscale crack trapping for programmable adhesives published with Hoon Eui Jeong in Science Advances.
9/2024 – New paper on Direct Ink Write 3D Printing of Fully Dense and Functionally Graded Liquid Metal Elastomer Foams published with Eric Markvicka in Advanced Functional Materials and is a cover feature.
9/2024 – Congratulations to our former postdoc Dong Hae Ho for beginning a faculty position at Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST) in Korea.
8/2024 – Congratulations to our former postdoc ABM Tahidul Haque for beginning a faculty position at the University of Alabama.
7/2024 – Changhyun Oh and Daniel Adjei receive the James P Wightman Scholarship from the Macromolecules Innovation Institute.
5/2024 – The lab holds an outreach event for 5th grade students on adhesion.
5/2024 – New article on Let it Flow: Emergence of Liquid Metals published with Michael Dickey, Aaron Ohta, and Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh for the special issue on Liquid Metals for Functional Materials in Advanced Functional Materials.
5/2024 – Prof. Bartlett serves as a guest editor with Michael Dickey, Aaron Ohta, and Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh for the special issue on Liquid Metals for Functional Materials in Advanced Functional Materials.
4/2024 – New paper on Enhancing Electrical Conductivity of Stretchable Liquid Metal–Silver Composites through Direct Ink Writing published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
3/2024 – New paper At the breaking point published in Nature Physics as a News & Views. See the open access version.
3/2024 – New paper on Kuttsukigami: sticky sheet design published in Soft Matter and featured on the cover with Andrew Croll.
3/2024 – New paper on Topology as a limiting factor for mechanical properties in disordered networks published in Cell Reports Physical Science with Edwin Chan.
3/2024 – Prof. Bartlett gives an invited virtual seminar at Meta Reality Labs.
2/2024 – Prof. Bartlett is interviewed by Nature Nanotechnology. See the story.
2/2024 – Prof. Bartlett is named to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) as a Senior Member. See the story.
2/2024 – Aldo receives the Best Poster Award at the Adhesion Society.
2/2024 – Yeunhee, Camryn, Aldo, Ahmed, Chanhong, Ohnyoung, Ravi, Wuzhou, and Ella attend the Adhesion Society Annual Meeting and present their work.
2/2024 – Prof. Bartlett gives an invited seminar in Materials Science and Engineering at Virginia Tech.
1/2024 – New paper on Rapid and Reversible Morphing to Enable Multifunctionality in Robots published in Advanced Intelligent Systems. See the story on Advanced Science News.
1/2024 – New paper on A Flexible and Electrically Conductive Liquid Metal Adhesive for Hybrid Electronic Integration published in Advanced Functional Materials.
12/2023 – New paper on Designing liquid metal microstructures through directed material extrusion additive manufacturing published with Eric Markvicka in Additive Manufacturing.
11/2023 – New paper on Liquid metal-elastomer composites for water-resilient soft electronics published in the Journal of Polymer Science.
10/2023 – Dong Hae and Prof. Bartlett attend and present at the 2023 SES Annual Technical Meeting.
10/2023 – Chanhong Lee and John Joyce receive the Best Poster Award at the 2023 MII Technical Conference and Review.
10/2023 – New paper on A Unified Understanding of Magnetorheological Elastomers for Rapid and Extreme Stiffness Tuning published in RSC Applied Polymers.
9/2023 – Prof. Bartlett is invited and attends the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering 2023 Symposium.
9/2023 – New paper on Bioinspired Materials for Underwater Adhesion with Pathways to Switchability published in Cell Reports Physical Science with Rong Long, Bruce P. Lee, and Grace X. Gu.
8/2023 – Prof. Bartlett is named a John R. Jones III Faculty Fellow. See the story.
8/2023 – Ted Barron successful defends his PhD thesis, congratulations Dr. Barron!
8/2023 – Prof. Bartlett gives an invited talk at the GRC Science of Adhesion. Chanhong and Yeunhee present posters at the GRC and GRS.
7/2023 – The lab hosts four days of outreach with BEE VT. See the video.
7/2023 – New paper on Electrically Conductive Liquid Metal Composite Adhesives for Reversible Bonding of Soft Electronics published in Advanced Functional Materials.
6/2023 – New paper on Metamaterial adhesives for programmable adhesion through reverse crack propagation published in Nature Materials with Rong Long and Eric Markvicka. See the story on VT, New Scientist, Phys.org, and more. Read the Behind the paper.
6/2023 – Prof. Bartlett is promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.
5/2023 – Prof. Bartlett receives the 2023 Adhesion Society Distinguished Paper Award.
5/2023 – Tyler Pozarycki successful defends his masters thesis, congratulations Tyler!
5/2023 – Chanhong Lee receives the Best Poster Award at the ME Graduate Symposium.
4/2023 – Gwyneth Schloer successful defends her masters thesis, congratulations Gwyn!
4/2023 – Prof. Bartlett receives the Faculty Fellow award from the VT College of Engineering.
3/2023 – Prof. Bartlett gives an invited seminar at the University of Missouri in the CBE Department.
3/2023 – Prof. Bartlett gives an invited seminar at Virginia Commonwealth University in the Physics Department.
2/2023 – Review paper on Peel tests for quantifying adhesion and toughness: A review published in Progress in Materials Science with Scott Case, Anthony Kinloch, and David Dillard.
2/2023 – Chanhong, Gwyneth, Ella, Ted, Tyler, Yeunhee, and Prof. Bartlett attend the Adhesion Society Annual Meeting and present their work.
1/2023 – Prof. Bartlett receives a NSF CAREER award. See the story and award.
1/2023 – Prof. Bartlett gives an invited seminar at the University of Pennsylvania in the Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics Department.
1/2023 – Jonathan Charleston successful defends his PhD thesis, congratulations Dr. Charleston!

See more news here and on X.

Video Highlight

We are grateful for support from the following organizations: