The thermally-induced shape-memory effect (SME) is the capability of a material to change its shape in a predefined way in response to heat. In shape-memory polymers this shape change is caused by the entropy-driven recovery of a mechanical deformation, which was applied before by application of external stress and was temporarily fixed by formation of additional crosslinks based on physical interaction or covalent crosslinks. In principle, these thermally-induced shape-memory effects are typically limited to one way effects in polymers under stress free conditions. Here, a new concept for the functionalization of polymer networks comprising crystallizable domains is presented to overcome the limitation of shape-memory polymers, which are not capable to perform free-standing reversible shape changes.

Polymer networks capable of reversible shape-memory-effects

248th National Meeting (2014)

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