Bidirectional freeze casting for fabricating lamellar structures

A method comprising:

• providing an apparatus, the apparatus comprising:
• a container, a bottom of the container comprising a wedge, the wedge comprising a first substantially planar surface and a second substantially planar surface with an angle between the first and the second substantially planar surfaces, an interior bottom of the container comprising the second substantially planar surface, and
• a cooling surface, the cooling surface being in contact with the first substantially planar surface;
• depositing a slurry on the second substantially planar surface, the slurry comprising a plurality of particles in a liquid;
• and
• cooling the cooling surface to cool the slurry at a specified cooling rate, crystals comprising the liquid first nucleating at a first end of the wedge, the first end of the wedge comprising a thinnest region of the wedge, the wedge creating a two-dimensional temperature gradient including a vertical temperature gradient from the bottom to a top of the container and a horizontal temperature gradient along the wedge, particles of the slurry being expelled from the crystals as the crystals grow along the vertical temperature gradient and the horizontal temperature gradient and forming a lamellar scaffold having a single domain.