Direct 4D printing of ceramics driven by hydrogel dehydration

Rong Wang; Chao Yuan; Jianxiang Cheng; Xiangnan He; Haitao Ye; Bingcong Jian; Honggeng Li; Jiaming Bai; Qi Ge

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-45039-y

Direct 4D printing of ceramics driven by hydrogel dehydration

Nat Commun. 2024 Jan 26;15(1):758. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-45039-y.

Authors

Rong Wang^#^{1

2}, Chao Yuan^#³, Jianxiang Cheng^#^{1

2}, Xiangnan He^{1

2}, Haitao Ye^{1

2

4}, Bingcong Jian^{1

2}, Honggeng Li^{1

2}, Jiaming Bai², Qi Ge^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Soft Mechanics & Smart Manufacturing, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
² Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
³ State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China. chao_yuan@xjtu.edu.cn.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁵ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Soft Mechanics & Smart Manufacturing, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China. geq@sustech.edu.cn.
⁶ Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China. geq@sustech.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

4D printing technology combines 3D printing and stimulus-responsive materials, enabling construction of complex 3D objects efficiently. However, unlike smart soft materials, 4D printing of ceramics is a great challenge due to the extremely weak deformability of ceramics. Here, we report a feasible and efficient manufacturing and design approach to realize direct 4D printing of ceramics. Photocurable ceramic elastomer slurry and hydrogel precursor are developed for the fabrication of hydrogel-ceramic laminates via multimaterial digital light processing 3D printing. Flat patterned laminates evolve into complex 3D structures driven by hydrogel dehydration, and then turn into pure ceramics after sintering. Considering the dehydration-induced deformation and sintering-induced shape retraction, we develop a theoretical model to calculate the curvatures of bent laminate and sintered ceramic part. Then, we build a design flow for direct 4D printing of various complex ceramic objects. This approach opens a new avenue for the development of ceramic 4D printing technology.

Abstract

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