A new polymer morphs from one pre-programmed shape to two others: as the flattened tube (top) is heated, it opens up (middle); heating it further makes it shrink.
Credit: GKSS Research Center

From the Labs

From the Labs: Nanotechnology

  • Monday, January 1, 2007
  • By Kevin Bullis

New publications, experiments, and breakthroughs in nanotechnology--and what they mean.

   

Morphing Materials
New shape-memory polymers can take on three successive shapes

Source: "Polymeric Triple-Shape Materials"
Ingo Bellin et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(48): 18043-18047

Results: Researchers at MIT and the GKSS Research Center in Germany have engineered polymers that can be programmed to sequentially take on three different predefined shapes in response to changes in temperature.

 

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