{"id":66312,"date":"2025-08-22T16:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T14:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/?p=66312"},"modified":"2025-08-22T16:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T14:05:09","slug":"researchers-design-tougher-and-stretchable-metamaterials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/researchers-design-tougher-and-stretchable-metamaterials\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Design Tougher and Stretchable Metamaterials"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Metamaterials<\/a> are synthetic materials that can exhibit extraordinary properties through the combination of different microscopic structures. Until now, the focus on desired properties has been primarily on stronger and more rigid structures. As a result, the final product naturally loses flexibility. Researchers at MIT have now shifted their focus to developing metamaterials that are both strong and stretchable using 3D printing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hydrogels<\/a> were the key trigger for research into flexible metamaterials. Typically, hydrogels have a rather soft, gel-like texture, but another MIT research group developed a hydrogel that retained its soft properties while at the same time being durable. The hydrogel was created by chemically linking different polymer networks, for example, by combining a rigid and a flexible network structure. This inspired Dr. Carlos Portela, a professor at MIT, to combine network structures for metamaterials in order to create new microscopic architectures.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The structure of the material \u201cfrom a distance\u201d (Image: MIT)<\/p><\/div>

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The new material consists of a rigid and brittle base made of plexiglass polymers, arranged in a lattice structure. Around this, the researchers designed a \u201cspaghetti-like network\u201d made from the same base material. The entire construction is built from microscopic struts that, in their original form, are not flexible. However, through the unique weaving of these struts using 3D printing, an overall stretchable structure is created.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This so-called \u201cdouble network\u201d can be stretched to four times its size without completely breaking. By comparison, a normal polymer<\/a> breaks immediately. Dr. Portela describes the research results as groundbreaking, noting that \u201cyou can print a double network out of metal or ceramic and achieve the same advantages. That means it takes much more energy to break the structures, and they would be significantly more stretchable.\u201d The design of the network can therefore also be applied to other materials such as glass, ceramics, or metal. This works purely through the structure of the metamaterial. In the event of a break, the weight of the construction is not carried by the struts but redistributed to the spiral-shaped structures. As a result, the structure does not break immediately and can continue to be used. The team even deliberately added \u201cflaws\u201d and holes to the metamaterial, since these demonstrably increased the stability of the overall structure.<\/p>\n

Potential applications could include fabrics that cannot tear, flexible semiconductors, chip casings, support structures for tissue cell growth, and much more. You can find more information HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What do you think about these metamaterials? Let us know in a comment below or on our\u00a0LinkedIn<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/span>Facebook<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>pages! Plus, don\u2019t forget to sign up for our free weekly\u00a0<\/span>Newsletter<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to get the latest 3D printing news straight to your inbox. You can also find all our videos on our\u00a0<\/span>YouTube<\/span><\/a>\u00a0channel.<\/span><\/p>\n

*All Photo Credit: MIT<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

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Metamaterials are synthetic materials that can exhibit extraordinary properties through the combination of different microscopic structures. Until now, the focus on desired properties has been primarily on stronger and more rigid structures. As a result, the final product naturally loses…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6118,"featured_media":66314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3d-materials","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66315,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66312\/revisions\/66315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}