Overview
- The peer‑reviewed work appears in Advanced Materials and details a hydrogel‑based vat photopolymerization method for metals and ceramics.
- Researchers first print a blank hydrogel scaffold, then run repeated infusion‑precipitation cycles to load metal or ceramic precursors before a final thermal conversion.
- Tested gyroid structures withstood about 20 times more pressure than earlier polymer‑to‑metal methods and shrank by roughly 20% instead of 60–90%.
- The approach reduced warping, enabling flat lattices and functional parts such as tiny iron gears, tubular stents, and gyroids in iron, silver, copper, and strontium hexaferrite.
- Processing time remains a key constraint due to multiple infusion cycles, and the team is developing robotic automation and targeting higher final densities for industrial uptake.