Traditional Japanese artistry inspires materials science breakthrough
14 Apr 2024
Researchers at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) have introduced a new method for creating the finely structured hydrogels, termed ‘kirigami hydrogels’ expanding possibilities in the field of soft and flexible materials.
The findings, published in the journal Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, outline the novel innovative approach to manipulating hydrogel structures. It is inspired by kirigami, a variant of the better known Japanese art of paper folding, origami.
Lead researchers Daisuke Nakagawa and Itsuo Hanasaki utilised cellulose nanofibre films as the base material for their experiments. Employing laser processing techniques, intricate patterns were carved into the thin cellulose film before exposing it to water, allowing controlled swelling and the formation of complex hydrogel structures.
The unique aspect of the approach lies in the auxetic property of the kirigami pattern, where the material's width increases when stretched longitudinally.
Said Nakagawa: "As kirigami literally means the cut design of papers, it was originally intended for thin sheet structures.
“On the other hand, our two-dimensional auxetic mechanism manifests when the thickness grows sufficiently when the original thin film is wet."
Development of kirigami hydrogels offers new possibilities in various fields, from biomedical applications to soft robotics. It is hoped that the precise control over structure and properties provided by the technique could enable further advances in fields requiring soft and flexible materials.
Pic: kirigami (Chinh Le Duc)
