Optically Fixable Shape Memory Polymers

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are stimuli-responsive materials that remember an original “permanent shape” that can be recovered from a temporary fixed shape by exposure to external stimuli such as heat, electricity, moisture, solvent, or a magnetic field. Shape fixing is most commonly observed by heating the polymeric material above a transition temperature that can be the glass transition (Tg), melting (Tm), or crystalline clearing temperature (Tcl). Recent work has demonstrated that polymeric materials with multiple transitions can exhibit two-way shape memory (2W-SM) behavior and so-called triple shape memory in systems possessing both chemical and physical crosslinking.