Four-Dimensional Printing of Self-Shaped Glass

Additive manufacturing of anisotropic structures usually requires additional support structures and produces ripple-like corrugation defects in curved shapes. Self-shaping technology mimics natural organisms, enabling autonomous shape changes via external stimuli or internal programming. Incorporating self-shaping into additive manufacturing preserves mechanical properties while it forms complex structures. We present an approach for fabricating self-shaped glass. By uniformly mixing SiO 2 powder in photosensitive slurry, we realize the self-shaped glass with high transmittance using simple Digital Light Processing. Printing components with graded SiO 2 concentrations induces controlled anisotropic shrinkage during sintering. The versatile and scalable approach enables precise shape changes in ceramics through bending, folding, twisting, and their combinations. We further developed a linear elasticity-based mechanical model, independent of material and scale, that accurately predicts shape evolution. This model serves as a design tool to select particle concentrations for tailoring shapes in diverse glass and ceramic systems.