Transparent, Shape Memory Polymers
5 February 2008, 15:38
Categories: smt-polymorphic-shape-shifters
Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a shape-memory rubber that may enable applications as diverse as biomedical implants, conformal face-masks, self-sealing sutures, and smart labels. The material, described in the journal Advanced Materials, forms a new class of shape-memory polymers, which are materials that can be stretched to a new shape and will stay in that form until heated, at which time they revert to their initial shape.
“At higher temperatures the material stretches like a rubber band, but, at lower temperatures, it stiffens up,” says Mitchell Anthamatten, assistant professor and inventor of the material. “This property can be used to temporarily hold the material in a deformed shape; and its original shape can be recalled by heating. Imagine an optical lens that can be triggered to change shape, a face-mask that can fit any user, or a biomedical implant that changes shape slow enough for a surgical procedure.”
Unlike conventional shape-memory polymers, however, the new material is transparent, rubbery, and most importantly, engineers will be able to control the speed at which it returns to its original shape. Other shape memory polymers use crystallization to hold a temporary shape, which often makes them opaque, hard, and brittle in their frozen states, and this can limit their use.
Posted by: The Editors
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