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…

Researchers categorize origami- and kirigami-based mechanical metamaterials, artificially engineered materials with unusual mechanical properties, and subdivided them into rigid or deformable categories based on the elastic energy landscape. The researchers want to discover new designs, especially curved origami designs, hybrid origami-kirigami designs, modular designs, and hierarchical designs; to design for real-world applications, it will be…

For years, researchers believed that the smaller the domain size in a ferroelectric crystal, the greater the piezoelectric properties of the material. However, recent findings have raised questions about this standard rule. Ferroelectric materials possess spontaneous electric dipole moments that can be reversibly flipped by applying an electric field. Domains are areas in the ferroelectric…

The person staring back from the computer screen may not actually exist, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) capable of generating convincing but ultimately fake images of human faces. Now this same technology may power the next wave of innovations in materials design, according to scientists. «We hear a lot about deepfakes in the news today…

Chemical engineers have developed a process that turns clothing fabric into biosensors which measure a muscle’s electrical activity as it is worn. This could become a much better solution in measuring muscle activity for physical rehabilitation or for other medical applications. Chemical engineering assistant professor Huanan Zhang has developed a process that turns clothing fabric…

The amount of stress a material can withstand before it cracks is critical information when designing aircraft, spacecraft, and other structures. Aerospace engineers used machine learning for the first time to predict stress in copper at the atomic scale. According to Huck Beng Chew and his doctoral student Yue Cui, materials, such as copper, are…

Experts have identified the way to tune the strength and ductility of a class of materials called high-entropy alloys. The discovery may help power-generation and aviation industry develop more efficient engines. High-entropy alloys are composed from four or more different elements, and often have many desirable properties — they are lightweight, strong, ductile, corrosion resistant…

Researchers have new insight into molecules that change their shape in response to light. The researchers studying azobenzene-based polymers found that their free volume — a measure of the space between polymer chains — was strongly linked with the polymers’ ability to convert visible light radiation into mechanical energy. The researchers studying azobenzene-based polymers found…

Engineers adapt a compound to serve as a universal anticorrosive coating for steel. The compound developed by the Rice University lab of materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan proved itself more dielectric (insulating) than most flexible materials and more flexible than most dielectrics, making it a good candidate for components in electronics like bendable cellphones. At the…

A material used in running shoes and memory foam pillows has inspired the design of a 3D-printed product that could help protect buildings from collision damage and other high impact forces, equivalent to a car travelling at 60km/hr. Published in Smart Materials and Structures, Dr Tatheer Zahra from the QUT Centre for Materials Science and…