As a unique type of deployable structure， bistable composite material structures have extensive applications in various fields such as foldable wings， energy harvesters， and adaptive structures. When these bistable structures are employed in complex environments， the changes in material properties have a significant impact on their bistable characteristics. By combining theoretical and numerical investigations， this study examines the impact of material properties on the bistability of composite cylindrical shells. A theoretical model is developed for antisymmetrically laminated composite cylindrical shells， and analytical expressions for the strain energy of the shell during deformation are derived. Moreover， the effects of characteristic constants including longitudinal modulus of elasticity， transverse modulus of elasticity， shear modulus， and Poisson’s ratio on strain energy， principal curvatures， and torsional rates are analyzed for the shell structure. The results indicate that variations in the longitudinal and transverse modulus of elasticity of the material significantly affect the strain energy per unit area and the principal curvature of the second stable state in bistable cylindrical shells. Specifically， when the shear modulus G12 decreases from 10 GPa to 2 GPa， the strain energy per unit area is reduced by approximately 72.98%.The Poisson’s ratio has almost no impact on the performance of the second stable state.