University of Houston Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Maksud Rahman. (Image courtesy of the University of Houston)
A bendable ceramic developed at the University of Houston reportedly has the potential to power next-generation prosthetics and aerospace technology.
HOUSTON—In a breakthrough that blends ancient design with modern materials science, researchers at the University of Houston (UH) have developed a new class of ceramic structures that can bend under pressure without breaking, according to a release from the university.
Potential applications for the technology are reported to range from medical prosthetics to impact-resistant components in aerospace and robotics, where lightweight but tough materials are in high demand.
Traditionally known for their brittleness, ceramics often shatter under stress, making them difficult to use in high-impact or adaptive applications. But that may soon change.
A team of UH researchers, led by Maksud Rahman, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Md Shajedul Hoque Thakur, postdoctoral fellow, has shown that origami-inspired shapes with a soft polymer coating can transform fragile ceramic materials into tough, flexible structures. Their work was recently published in Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials.
“Ceramics are incredibly useful—biocompatible, lightweight, and durable in the right conditions—but they fail catastrophically,” Rahman said in the release. “Our goal was to engineer that failure into something more graceful and safer.”
To do that, the team 3D printed a ceramic structure based on the Miura-ori origami pattern, a way to fold something flat, like paper, so it takes up less space but stays flat overall. They then coated it with a stretchable, biocompatible polymer. The resulting structure is said to handle stress in ways that ordinary ceramics cannot. When compressed in different directions, the coated structures flexed and recovered, while their uncoated counterparts cracked or broke.
“The origami geometry gave us mechanical adaptability,” said Thakur in the release. “And the polymer coating introduced just enough flexibility to prevent sudden breakage.”
The researchers tested the structures under both static and cyclic compression and backed up their experiments with computer simulations. The coated versions are reported to have consistently shown greater toughness, especially in directions where the original ceramic was weakest.
“Origami is more than an art—it’s a powerful design tool that can reshape how we approach challenges in both biomedical and engineering fields,” said Rahman. “This work demonstrates how folding patterns can unlock new functionalities in even the most fragile materials.”