Textile-based soft morphing structures that can change the shape from 2D to 3D in response to external stimuli have a wide variety of applications, including wearable electronics, exosuits, and soft robots. Textiles offer advantages such as breathability, conformability, and personalized. It also uses less materials in yarns than films. Here, we fabricate meter-long yarns from shape memory polymers by electrospinning, followed by fiber twisting. The yarns can be pre-stretched to a temporary shape and cooled below the room temperature to fix the shape. Upon heated to the body temperature, the stretched yarn shrinks to the original shape. We then introduce thermochromic pigments into the yarns, followed by co-twisting with copper wires, which can be knitted into different 2D patterns and fixed as the temporary shapes. Upon applying 1-3 V voltage, the 2D fabrics can morph into blooming a tulip-like flower with multi-layered pedals, while the color changes simultaneously. Conversely, we demonstrated a rose-like closing flower. The degree and speed of shape shifting can be locally controlled by the electric current and the knitting patterns in each pedal, as well as the connectivity of the pedals. Our study offers the first step to create multi-responsive textile-based materials, where more complex morphing structures can be created by selectively knitting and actuation of individual yarns.

Bioinspired blooming and closing flowers knitted from thermochromic, shape memory polymer yarns

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.