Ryan Hayward's self-folding crane begins as a flat, trilayer sheet. The middle pNIPAM hydrogel layer swells as the water around it is heated, and the folding is guided by slits patterned into the more ...

Shape memory materials that can revert back into a desired form after being bent, twisted and stretched are finding their way into a number of applications, ranging from sports bras to more efficient ...

What if a complex material could reshape itself in response to a simple chemical signal? A team of physicists from the University of Vienna and the University of Edinburgh has shown that even small ...

Polymers that exhibit shape-memory effect (SME) are an important class of materials in medicine, especially for minimally invasive deployment of devices. Professor Subbu Venkatraman and his group from ...

(MENAFN- EIN Presswire) EINPresswire/ -- Minimally invasive medical implants require materials that can be delivered in compact form and recover their functional shape once inside the body. However, ...

Energy is stored in the crystalline structure of the polymer as it's stretched, allowing it to snap back when heated. Share on Facebook (opens in a new window) Share on X (opens in a new window) Share ...