University of Texas at Arlington researchers have developed a technique that programs 2D materials to transform into complex 3D shapes. The goal of the work is to create synthetic materials that can mimic how living organisms expand and contract soft tissues and thus achieve complex 3D movements and functions.

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Programming thin sheets, or 2D materials, to morph into 3D shapes can enable new technologies for soft robotics, deployable systems, and biomimetic manufacturing, which produces synthetic products that mimic biological processes. Kyungsuk Yum, an associate professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department, and his team have developed the 2D material programming technique for 3D shaping. It allows the team to print 2D materials encoded with spatially controlled in-plane growth or contraction that can transform to programmed 3D structures.

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Their research, supported by a National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award that Yum received in 2019, was published in Nature Communications . “There are a variety of 3-D-shaped 2D materials in biological systems, and they play diverse functions,” Yum said. “Biological organisms often achieve complex 3-D morphologies and motions of soft slender tissues by spatially controlling their expansion and contraction. Such […]

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