Nanoscale objects, such as nanowires and thin films, possess exceptional physical properties. However, their desirable characteristics are intrinsically coupled to their small size and solitary nature and are generally challenging to harness in conventional monolithic solids. Metamaterials go beyond classical material design approaches and are structured from building blocks with specifically designed spatial architectures, such as lattice-truss frameworks. These architectures grant them many conventionally inaccessible properties. Two-photon polymerization 3D-printing facilitates the miniaturization of metamaterial architectures down to the nanoscale, enabling them to harness material size-effects in their constituent solids, including extreme mechanical strength. Herein, design concepts, synthesis approaches and performance of nanoarchitected materials and mechanical metamaterials are presented, offering a pathway to exploit beneficial nano-properties in 3D volumes.
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