Strong as steel and light as foam – AI came up with new materials for space and transport

The traditional choice of materials for vehicles is small: in all cases, first of all, you have to take into account the mass and look for a compromise between strength and ease. The appearance of 3D printing has opened a new page in this area, allowing, due to the complex internal architecture of the “spacers”, to reduce the mass of parts without a deterioration in their strength. Machine training opens the following page, helping to predict the best nanoarchitecture of materials for maximum strength.

Material of 18.7 million cells in a grate on the top of the soap bubble. Image source: Peter Serles / University of Toronto Engineering

Researchers from the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto have used machine learning to develop nanostructured materials that have the strength of carbon steel and the lightness of polystyrene foam. An article based on the results of the work was published on January 23, 2025 in the journal Advanced Materials. The paper describes the process of creating nanomaterials whose properties combine extreme strength, light weight and customizability. This approach could benefit a wide range of industries, from automotive to aerospace.

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By involving colleagues from South Korea (KAIST) in the search for a solution, who conducted machine learning on given parameters using multi-objective Bayesian optimization, the researchers were able to predict the best geometric configurations of nanostructures in terms of optimal stress distribution in the material.

According to calculations, a two-photon polymerization 3D printer located at the Center for Research and Application of Fluidic Technologies (CRAFT) printed samples of nanoarchitectural material in the form of optimized carbon lattices. Testing showed that the strength of the new material is five times higher than that of titanium.

Image source: Advanced Materials 2025

The nanoarchitectural materials presented by scientists consist of tiny blocks – repeating elements several hundred nanometers in size. It would take more than 100 of these elements in a row to reach the thickness of a human hair. These building blocks, made of carbon, are arranged in complex three-dimensional structures called nanolattices. If, for example, airplane fuselages are made from such materials, they will be able to fly further on the same fuel supply due to a decrease in weight without loss of strength.

It is possible that this will be the key to creating the flying cars of the future. Currently, their development is limited by battery capacity, but weight reduction due to new materials could allow such vehicles to fly longer and further.