Realizing a shape-memory effect for synthetic rubber (IR)

Shape Memory Alloys and Polymers for MEMS/NEMS Applications: Review on Recent Findings and Challenges in Design, Preparation, and Characterization

Rapid progress in material science and nanotechnology has led to the development of the shape memory alloys (SMA) and the shape memory polymers (SMP) based functional multilayered structures that, due to their capability to achieve the properties not feasible by most natural materials, have attracted a significant attention from the scientific community. These shape memory materials can sustain large deformations, which can be recovered once the appropriate value of an external stimulus is applied. Moreover, the SMAs and SMPs can be reprogrammed to meet several desired functional properties. As a result, SMAs and SMPs multilayered structures benefit from the unprecedented physical and material properties such as the shape memory effect, superelasticity, large displacement actuation, changeable mechanical properties, and the high energy density. They hold promises in the design of advanced functional micro- and nano-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS). In this review, we discuss the recent understanding and progress in the fields of the SMAs and SMPs. Particular attention will be given to the existing challenges, critical issues, limitations, and achievements in the preparation and characterization of the SMPs and NiTi-based SMAs thin films, and their heterostructures for MEMS/NEMS applications including both experimental and computational approaches. Examples of the recent MEMS/NEMS devices utilizing the unique properties of SMAs and SMPs such as micropumps, microsensors or tunable metamaterial resonators are highlighted. In addition, we also introduce the prospective future research directions in the fields of SMAs and SMPs for the nanotechnology applications.

The Scissors Effect in Action: The Fox-Flory Relationship between the Glass Transition Temperature of Crosslinked Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) and Mc in Nanophase Separated Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)-l-Polyisobutylene Conetworks

The glass transition temperature (Tg) is one of the most important properties of polymeric materials. In order to reveal whether the scissors effect, i.e., the Fox-Flory relationship between Tg and the average molecular weight between crosslinking points (Mc), reported only in one case for polymer conetworks so far, is more generally effective or valid only for a single case, a series of poly(methyl methacrylate)-l-polyisobutylene (PMMA-l-PIB) conetworks was prepared and investigated. Two Tgs were found for the conetworks by DSC. Fox-Flory type dependence between Tg and Mc of the PMMA component (Tg = Tg,∞ - K/Mc) was observed. The K constants for the PMMA homopolymer and for the PMMA in the conetworks were the same in the margin of error. AFM images indicated disordered bicontinuous, mutually nanoconfined morphology with average domain sizes of 5-20 nm, but the correlation between Tg and domain sizes was not found. These new results indicate that the macrocrosslinkers act like molecular scissors (scissors effect), and the Tg of PMMA depend exclusively on the Mc in the conetworks. Consequently, these findings mean that the scissors effect is presumably a general phenomenon in nanophase-separated polymer conetworks, and this finding could be utilized in designing, processing, and applications of these novel materials.