New Morphogenetic Strategy Inspired by the Viscoelasticity of Polymers

A new morphogenetic strategy was developed to realize continuously modulated and reprogrammable three-dimensional shape transitions by fully exploring the potential of macromolecular conformational modulations. Geometric information was defined in the planar shape memory polymeric sheets through the application of spatially differentiated thermo-temporal conditions in the shape memory creation stage. Due to the viscoelasticity of polymers, nonuniform inner stress distribution was encoded in spite of the homogeneous composition, which was released under the activation of uniform heating. Compared to the traditional shape-programming strategies, the present research offered the opportunity to generate physical patterns by modulating the thermal histories of polymers. It brought the advantages of a continuously regulated degree of discrepancy between different regions, which enabled fine-tuning of the targeted three-dimensional (3D) shape. In addition, suitable annealing treatment could lead to the elimination of thermal history. That is, the geometric information could be erased and re-encoded, making unlimited diverse 3D structures from the same piece of polymer a reality.