The invention, published in Science Advances, represents a significant advancement that can potentially transform ingestible and implantable medical devices.

Metamaterials are synthetic constructs that exhibit unusual properties not typically found in natural materials. Instead of relying solely on chemical composition, the effective behavior of these materials is primarily determined by the physical structure, i.e., the specific shape, arrangement and scale of their building blocks.

The new metamaterial designed by Kong and the team at Rice possesses a unique combination of stability and deformability, which the researchers say has never been achieved in such soft structures before. This metamaterial is also remarkably strong—it can sustain compressive loads more than 10 times its weight and maintains performance in temperatures that far exceed physiological conditions as well as harsh chemical environments.