When stretched or deformed, shape memory polymers return to their original shapes after heat or light is applied. These materials show great promise for soft robotics, smart biomedical devices and ...

A polymer that changes shape when heated can lift objects 5000 times its own weight, with potential applications in robotics. Shape-memory polymers flip between their normal state, where molecules are ...

A recent study in Nature Communications presents a new class of shape memory polymer (SMP) surfaces embedded with nanotips. These surfaces feature tunable nanoscale roughness, enabling adjustable dry ...

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are a remarkable class of stimuli‐responsive materials capable of undergoing substantial deformation and subsequently recovering their original shape when exposed to ...

In a recent review published in Micromachines, researchers from Spain and Portugal highlighted the synergistic combination of shape-memory polymers (SMP) with carbon nanotubes (CNT) to enhance ...

Researchers at Texas A&M University and the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory have developed a new family of synthetic materials ranging in texture from very ...

What are shape memory polymers? Shape memory polymers were first conceived back in the 1940s when L. B. Vernon and his colleagues discovered the shape memory properties of polymers, reported in a 1941 ...

Researchers have developed a shape memory polymer that stores almost six times more energy than previous versions. When stretched or deformed, shape memory polymers return to their original shapes ...