Photodeformable Polymers: A New Kind of Promising Smart Material for Micro‐ and Nano‐Applications

Abstract

Summary: Starting in the 1960s, several kinds of photodeformable polymers have been developed, such as monolayers, polymer gels, solid films and liquid‐crystalline elastomers with different photodeformation mechanisms. This field evolved slowly until recently when significant achievements have been made. Most recently, Lendlein and co‐workers have put forward another new concept – using photo‐crosslinking to prepare deformable polymers with various pre‐determined shapes (Nature 2005, 434, 879). This highlight gives a general introduction into photodeformable polymers and brings forth future challenges.

Synthesis, Characterization and Thermally-Activated Curing of Azobenzene-Containing Benzoxazines

“…The azobenzene compounds with strong electron donor substituents, referred to as aminoazobenzene type molecules, have an orange color, while pseudo-stilbenes which are substituted with an electron-donating and an electron-withdrawing group at 4 and 4 positions exhibit red color. In our case, additional substitution during the ring-opening reaction may occur [39,40]. As can be seen from Fig.…”

Shape-Memory Polymers for Biomedical Applications

“…Incorporation of magnetic nanoparticles of iron(III)oxide cores in a silica matrix into shape-memory thermoplasts enables remote actuation of the thermally-induced dual-shape effect in alternating magnetic fields (Fig 2) [14]. While this effect still relies on the thermal actuation of the dual shape effect, incorporation of reversibly reacting molecular switches enables light-induced stimulation of dual-shape polymers [15][16][17] which is independent of any temperature effects. Cinnamic acid (CA) or cinnamyliden acetic acid (CAA) [15] moieties have been used as the lightsensitive molecular switches.…”

Polysiloxane Side-Chain Azobenzene-Containing Liquid Single Crystal Elastomers for Photo-Active Artificial Muscle-Like Actuators

“…Since their discovery in 1889 by F. Reinitzer 1 , they have experienced an explosive growth because of their successful application in a wide variety of areas such as information displays 2 , cosmetics and health care 3 , thermography [4][5] , artificial muscle-like actuators [6][7] and enantioselective synthesis 8 , among others. Thus, liquid crystals play an important role in modern technology and they are present in the most common devices used in our daily live.…”