Soft, flexible—and incredibly tough. A new bamboo-inspired hydrogel can protect glass from the impact of a steel ball and lift more than 50,000 times its own weight
The material was created by a team of researchers led by Assistant Professor Zhai Wei (Mechanical Engineering), who took inspiration from bamboo’s natural structure—strong yet lightweight, and able to bend without snapping.
Mimicking this, the hydrogel is made using sustainable, bio-based ingredients such as chitosan (from shellfish), alginate (from seaweed), tannic acid, and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). These components come together to form a tightly bonded, layered structure that reinforces the hydrogel at the molecular level.
The team's research was published recently in the journal Nature Communications.
A key part of the fabrication process involves aligning the internal fibres by stretching the material during processing, similar to the way fibres are naturally aligned in bamboo. This gives the hydrogel its impressive mechanical strength and energy-absorbing ability, allowing it to withstand tension and blunt impact without tearing.
With its unique combination of strength, flexibility, and biocompatibility, the hydrogel shows promise for a wide range of real-world applications—from protective gear and flexible electronics to medical devices and soft robotics.
Watch the video to see how nature’s design inspired this breakthrough material.
