Issue 33, 2024

NIR-induced photothermal-responsive shape memory polyurethane for versatile smart material applications

Abstract

Stimuli responsiveness has been an attractive feature of smart material design, allowing the chemical and physical properties of the materials to change in response to small environmental variations. The versatile shape memory polyurethane (SMPU) has been advanced into thermally-responsive SMPU, enabling its use in neurovascular stents, smart fibers for compression garments, and thermal-responsive components for aircraft and aerospace structures. While thermally-induced SMPU materials exhibit excellent shape recovery and fixity, they encounter limitations such as long response times, energy-intensive heating processes, and potential damage to heat-sensitive components, hindering their wide application. Thus, SMPU has further advanced into a photothermal-responsive material by incorporating photothermal agents into the polymer matrix, offering faster response times, compatibility with heat-sensitive materials, and enhanced mechanical properties, expanding the versatility and applicability of shape memory technology. This review focuses on the classes of NIR-induced photothermal agent used in SMPU systems, their synthesis methods, and photothermal-responsive mechanism under NIR-light, which offers a dual responsiveness to the host SMPU. The advantages and limitations of NIR-induced photothermal SMPU are reviewed, and challenges in their development are discussed.

Graphical abstract: NIR-induced photothermal-responsive shape memory polyurethane for versatile smart material applications

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Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
30 jun 2024
Accepted
25 jul 2024
First published
05 avg 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2024,14, 24265-24286

NIR-induced photothermal-responsive shape memory polyurethane for versatile smart material applications

K. Y. Lam, C. S. Lee and R. Y. H. Tan, RSC Adv., 2024, 14, 24265 DOI: 10.1039/D4RA04754K

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