Solvent-assisted programming of flat polymer sheets into reconfigurable and self-healing 3D structures

Yang Yang, Eugene M. Terentjev, Yen Wei and Yan Ji ()
Additional contact information
Yang Yang: Tsinghua University
Eugene M. Terentjev: University of Cambridge
Yen Wei: Tsinghua University
Yan Ji: Tsinghua University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract It is extremely challenging, yet critically desirable to convert 2D plastic films into 3D structures without any assisting equipment. Taking the advantage of solvent-induced bond-exchange reaction and elastic-plastic transition, shape programming of flat vitrimer polymer sheets offers a new way to obtain 3D structures or topologies, which are hard for traditional molding to achieve. Here we show that such programming can be achieved with a pipette, a hair dryer, and a bottle of solvent. The polymer used here is very similar to the commercial epoxy, except that a small percentage of a specific catalyst is involved to facilitate the bond-exchange reaction. The programmed 3D structures can later be erased, reprogrammed, welded with others, and healed again and again, using the same solvent-assisted technique. The 3D structures can also be recycled by hot-pressing into new sheets, which can still be repeatedly programmed.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04257-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-04257-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04257-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().