{"id":138472,"date":"2016-02-09T10:39:42","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T15:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=138472"},"modified":"2020-05-07T12:40:02","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T16:40:02","slug":"body-temperature-triggers-newly-developed-polymer-to-change-shape-138472","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/body-temperature-triggers-newly-developed-polymer-to-change-shape-138472\/","title":{"rendered":"Body heat triggers shape change in new type of polymer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Material Can Lift 1000 Times Its Mass<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Polymers that visibly change shape when exposed to temperature changes are nothing new. But a research team led by chemical engineering professor <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.che.rochester.edu\/~anthamat\/\">Mitch Anthamatten<\/a><\/strong> at the University of Rochester created a material that undergoes a shape change that can be triggered by body heat alone, opening the door for new medical and other applications.<\/p>\n<p>The material developed by Anthamatten and graduate student Yuan Meng is a type of shape-memory polymer, which can be programmed to retain a temporary shape until it is triggered\u2014typically by heat\u2014to return to its original shape.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTuning the trigger temperature is only one part of the story,\u201d said Anthamatten. \u201cWe also engineered these materials to store large amount of elastic energy, enabling them to perform more mechanical work during their shape recovery\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/50zu5HSdlLc\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The findings are being published this week in the <em>Journal of Polymer Science<\/em> <em>Part B: Polymer Physics<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/polb.23990\/abstract\">Read the original study<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The key to developing the new polymer was figuring out how to control crystallization that occurs when the material is cooled or stretched. As the material is deformed, polymer chains are locally stretched, and small segments of the polymer align in the same direction in small areas\u2014or domains\u2014called crystallites, which fix the material into a temporarily deformed shape. As the number of crystallites grows, the polymer shape becomes more and more stable, making it increasingly difficult for the material to revert back to its initial\u2014or \u201cpermanent\u201d\u2014shape.<\/p>\n<p>The ability to tune the trigger temperature was achieved by including molecular linkers to connect the individual polymer strands. Anthamatten\u2019s group discovered that linkers inhibit\u2014but don\u2019t stop\u2014crystallization when the material is stretched. By altering the number and types of linkers used, as well as how they\u2019re distributed throughout the polymer network, the Rochester researchers were able to adjust the material\u2019s stability and precisely set the melting point at which the shape change is triggered.<\/p>\n<p>Heating the new polymer to temperatures near 35 \u00b0C, just below the body temperature causes the crystallites to break apart and the material to revert to its permanent shape.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2DE3D9SLev8\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>\u201cOur shape-memory polymer is like a rubber band that can lock itself into a new shape when stretched,\u201d said Anthamatten. \u201cBut a simple touch causes it to recoil back to its original shape.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Having a polymer with a precisely tunable trigger temperature was only one objective. Of equal importance, Anthamatten and his team wanted the material to be able to deliver a great deal of mechanical work as the shape transforms back to its permanent shape. Consequently, they set out to optimize their polymer networks to store as much elastic energy as possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNearly all applications of shape memory polymers will require that the material pushes or pulls on its surroundings,\u201d said Anthamatten.\u00a0 \u201cHowever, researchers seldom measure the amount of mechanical work that shape-memory polymers are actually performing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anthamatten\u2019s shape-memory polymer is capable of lifting an object one-thousand times its weight. For example, a polymer the size of a shoelace\u2014which weighs about a gram\u2014could lift a liter of soda.<\/p>\n<p>Anthamatten says the shape-memory polymer could have a variety of applications, including sutures, artificial skin, body-heat assisted medical dispensers, and self-fitting apparel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Polymers that visibly change shape when exposed to temperature changes are nothing new. But a research team led by chemical engineering professor Mitch Anthamatten has created a material that undergoes a shape change that can be triggered by body heat alone, opening the door for new medical and other applications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":138502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[18842,18632,37312,18572,37822],"class_list":["post-138472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-tech","tag-department-of-chemical-and-sustainability-engineering","tag-hajim-school-of-engineering-and-applied-sciences","tag-materials-science-program","tag-research-finding","tag-urnano"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Body heat triggers shape change in new type of polymer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/body-temperature-triggers-newly-developed-polymer-to-change-shape-138472\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Body heat triggers shape change in new type of polymer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Polymers that visibly change shape when exposed to temperature changes are nothing new. But a research team led by chemical engineering professor Mitch Anthamatten has created a material that undergoes a shape change that can be triggered by body heat alone, opening the door for new medical and other applications.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/body-temperature-triggers-newly-developed-polymer-to-change-shape-138472\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-09T15:39:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-07T16:40:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/fea-shape-memory-polymer.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter Iglinski\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PiDaddy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter Iglinski\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/body-temperature-triggers-newly-developed-polymer-to-change-shape-138472\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/body-temperature-triggers-newly-developed-polymer-to-change-shape-138472\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Peter Iglinski\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f7a217a901be900507c6e137448f5d5a\"},\"headline\":\"Body heat triggers shape change in new type of polymer\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-09T15:39:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-07T16:40:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/body-temperature-triggers-newly-developed-polymer-to-change-shape-138472\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":547,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/body-temperature-triggers-newly-developed-polymer-to-change-shape-138472\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/fea-shape-memory-polymer.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Department of Chemical and Sustainability Engineering\",\"Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences\",\"Materials Science Program\",\"research finding\",\"URnano\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science &amp; 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