Thank you so much for all the great science we did together in the last 6 years! I really enjoyed the challenging projects and building the 3D printing infrastructure with the perfect mix of scientific freedom and close guidance in the right moments!.

@Tansu_Abbasoglu @WaltherLab @SardonL This project really showed the power of collaboration from combined expertise, as we were able to finish such a great project within less than half a year during her exchange in our lab!.

@Tansu_Abbasoglu @WaltherLab @SardonL @Tansu_Abbasoglu brought CO2-derived monomers for non-isocyanate based polyurethanes, which we then introduced into metamaterial geometries for spatial reconfiguration using dynamic covalent chemistry, triggered by Joule heating!.

Our great collaborative project with @Tansu_Abbasoglu .between the @WaltherLab and @SardonL is finally published!.We introduced dynamic covalent chemistry into metamaterials for spatial reconfiguration triggered by Joule heating.

RT @WaltherLab: Fresh In @NatureComms: Mechano-Adaptive Meta-gels Through Synergistic Chemical and Physical Information-Processing: An abs….

RT @WaltherLab: Last week’s group retreat with a bottom up ideation competition. Fantastic ideas came out of it. A lot of fun and hard work….

Great collaboration with Robin, Ricarda, Moritz!.Full paper found on

The stiffening is highly predictable and further verified by finite element simulation and with a straightforward analytical description. 8/8

By exploiting the highly tunable out-of-plane buckling, we can tune the onset of stiffening with a step-function increase in stiffening. Importantly, the stiffness before and after stiffening remains identical. 7/8

To achieve great variation in swelling, we hard-code the extend of swelling by the concentration of acrylic acid and soft-code the swelling by variation in pH. This both tunes the extend of buckling and therefore also the stiffening. 6/8

Instead of varying the crosslinking ratio for differences in actuation, we change the acrylic acid to acrylamide ratio while keeping the overall monomer concentration identical. Like this, we obtain differences in actuation while keeping the same stiffness. 5/8

Most hydrogels suffer from poor mechanical properties, so we developed actuators with highly entangled network structures: High monomer and low crosslinker concentration gives high strength and resilience while allowing great actuation. 4/8

Crucially, the out-of-plane buckling results in a strain stiffening response under tensile deformation. At low strain, the beams do not contribute to the mechanical response until they straighten with a resulting step-function increase in stiffness. 3/8

@WaltherLab @SlesarenkoLab The core idea relies on active pH-switchable hydrogel beams that are embedded into a passive hydrogel frame. The active beams swell and buckle out of plane. 2/8.

In our newest paper @WaltherLab and @SlesarenkoLab we show how to use controlled buckling of active beams for strain-stiffening metamaterials. Buckling is a feature - not a bug! .Short 🧵: 1/8

RT @WaltherLab: New Preprint online: "Mechano-Adaptive Meta-Gels Through Synergistic Chemical and Physical Information-Processing" This is….

RT @WaltherLab: Fresh on ChemRxiv:."Scalable Approach to Molecular Motor-Polymer Conjugates for Light-Driven Artificial Muscles" A five yea….

Sharing the passion for frugal science by @PrakashLab @ManuPra18599785! The Paperfuge works great in combination with the Foldscope.

Had an amazing week of science at the Gordon Research Conference Robotics 2024 in Ventura, California! @GordonConf.Inspiring talks and plenty of time for discussions. Of course also making new friends and watching some whales and dolphins!

RT @WaltherLab: This day was a blast. 😃🤓Thanks so much for visiting us @vanhest_lab. Great talks, great discussions. Thanks to @Lorenabp9 a….