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Cooling‐Triggered Shapeshifting Hydrogels with Multi‐Shape Memory Performance
Author(s) -
Hu Xiaobo,
Zhang Daixuan,
Sheiko Sergei S.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201707461
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , materials science , overheating (electricity) , shape memory alloy , nanotechnology , soft robotics , isothermal process , biomedical engineering , composite material , computer science , artificial intelligence , robot , polymer chemistry , thermodynamics , electrical engineering , medicine , physics , engineering
Heating‐triggered shape actuation is vital for biomedical applications. The likely overheating and subsequent damage of surrounding tissue, however, severely limit its utilization in vivo. Herein, cooling‐triggered shapeshifting is achieved by designing dual‐network hydrogels that integrate a permanent network for elastic energy storage and a reversible network of hydrophobic crosslinks for “freezing” temporary shapes when heated. Upon cooling to 10 °C, the hydrophobic interactions weaken and allow recovery of the original shape, and thus programmable shape alterations. Further, multiple temporary shapes can be encoded independently at either different temperatures or different times during the isothermal network formation. The ability of these hydrogels to shapeshift at benign conditions may revolutionize biomedical implants and soft robotics.