Programming polymers to remember complex, reversible shapes скачать в хорошем качестве

Programming polymers to remember complex, reversible shapes

Researchers formulate a stretchy polymer that can be programmed to remember complex shapes.↓↓ Liquid-crystal elastomers—which contain heat-responsive liquid-crystal molecules embedded in a stretchy polymer—could one day be used to make soft robots and biomedical devices. Typically, researchers program particular shapes into this type of material by controlling the liquid crystals’ orientation; when cool, the liquid crystals hold the material in a desired shape, and when heated, the material relaxes. To do this, they perform complicated calculations to determine what crystal orientation would produce a specific shape. Now, Rice University researchers have instead harnessed an existing two-step polymerization reaction to program complex, reversible shapes into the material. The process requires no calculations, only molding and curing the material (Soft Matter 2018, DOI: 10.1039/c8sm02174k). The team optimized the composition of the reagents to produce a material that can form flowers, letters, and even a face, then flatten when heated. Read more: Direct shape programming of liquid crystal elastomers | Soft Matter https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/artic... Harnessing the power of shape-shifting polymers | C&EN https://cen.acs.org/articles/96/i9/ha... ‘Venus flytrap’ soft robot gets a grip | C&EN https://cen.acs.org/content/cen/artic... Pop-up liquid crystals | C&EN https://cen.acs.org/articles/93/i9/Po... Music: “Lobby Time” by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC BY 3.0 This video is a production of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society. Contact us at cen_multimedia@acs.org!