A doctor shows a 4D-printed breast-implant material that could biodegrade over time at the Fourth Military Medical University's Xijing Hospital last June in Xi'an.[Photo by Zhang Yinan/China News Service]

Chinese researchers have developed the world's first 4D printing technology for ceramics, offering broad potential applications in telecommunications, electronics and even space exploration.

Researchers at the City University of Hong Kong reported in a study, published on Aug 17 in the journal Science Advances, the development of a novel "ceramic ink" - a mixture of polymers and ceramic nanoparticles.

The 3D-printed ceramic precursors printed with this novel ink are soft and can be stretched three times beyond their initial length, according to the study.

These flexible and stretchable ceramic precursors allow complex shapes, such as origami folding. With proper heat treatment, ceramics with complex shapes can be made, making them 4D ceramics.

Conventional 3D printing combined with the additional element of time as the fourth dimension is 4D printing, where the printed objects can re-shape or self-assemble themselves over time with external stimuli, such as mechanical force, temperature, or a magnetic field.

The existing 3D-printed ceramic precursors, which are usually difficult to deform, also hinder the 4D printing of ceramics with complex shapes.