Coating ceramic schwarzites, 3D-printed lattices, with a thin polymer helps keep them from shattering under pressure, according to materials scientists.

Ceramics made with 3D printers crack under stress like any plate or bowl. But covered in a soft polymer cured under ultraviolet light, the same materials stand a far better chance of keeping their structural integrity, much like a car windshield’s treated glass is less likely to shatter.

The research at Rice’s Brown School of Engineering, which appears in Science Advances, demonstrates the concept on schwarzites, complex lattices that for decades existed only as theory but can now be made with 3D printers. With added polymers, they come to resemble structures found in nature like seashells and bones that consist of hardened platelets in a biopolymer matrix.

Schwarzites, named for German scientist Hermann Schwarz, who hypothesized in the 1880s the «negatively curved» structures could be used wherever very strong but lightweight materials are needed, from batteries to bones to buildings.

The researchers led by Rice materials scientists Pulickel Ajayan and Muhammad Rahman and graduate student and lead author Seyed Mohammad Sajadi proved through experiments and simulations that a coating of polymer no more than 100 microns thick will make fragile schwarzites up to 4.5 times more resistant to catastrophic fractures.

The structures may still crack under pressure, but they won’t fall apart.

Story Source: Materials provided by Rice University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.