A Brief Review of the Shape Memory Phenomena in Polymers and Their Typical Sensor Applications

Li Sun; Tao Xi Wang; Hong Mei Chen; Abhijit Vijay Salvekar; Balasundaram Selvan Naveen; Qinwei Xu; Yiwei Weng; Xinli Guo; Yahui Chen; Wei Min Huang

doi:10.3390/polym11061049

A Brief Review of the Shape Memory Phenomena in Polymers and Their Typical Sensor Applications

Polymers (Basel). 2019 Jun 15;11(6):1049. doi: 10.3390/polym11061049.

Authors

Li Sun¹, Tao Xi Wang^{2

3}, Hong Mei Chen⁴, Abhijit Vijay Salvekar⁵, Balasundaram Selvan Naveen⁶, Qinwei Xu⁷, Yiwei Weng⁸, Xinli Guo⁹, Yahui Chen¹⁰, Wei Min Huang¹¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Civil Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang 110168, China. sunli2000sy@163.com.
² School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore. wa0003xi@e.ntu.edu.sg.
³ School of Materials Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou 213001, China. wa0003xi@e.ntu.edu.sg.
⁴ College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610066, China. chenhongmei@sicnu.edu.cn.
⁵ School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore. ABHIJITV001@e.ntu.edu.sg.
⁶ School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore. NAVEEN008@e.ntu.edu.sg.
⁷ School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore. QXU003@e.ntu.edu.sg.
⁸ School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore. WENG0022@e.ntu.edu.sg.
⁹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China. guo.xinli@seu.edu.cn.
¹⁰ School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore. ChenYahui@ntu.edu.sg.
¹¹ School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore. mwmhuang@ntu.edu.sg.

Abstract

In this brief review, an introduction of the underlying mechanisms for the shape memory effect (SME) and various shape memory phenomena in polymers is presented first. After that, a summary of typical applications in sensors based on either heating or wetting activated shape recovery using largely commercial engineering polymers, which are programmed by means of in-plane pre-deformation (load applied in the length/width direction) or out-of-plane pre-deformation (load applied in the thickness direction), is presented. As demonstrated by a number of examples, many low-cost engineering polymers are well suited to, for instance, anti-counterfeit and over-heating/wetting monitoring applications via visual sensation and/or tactual sensation, and many existing technologies and products (e.g., holography, 3D printing, nano-imprinting, electro-spinning, lenticular lens, Fresnel lens, QR/bar code, Moiré pattern, FRID, structural coloring, etc.) can be integrated with the shape memory feature.

Keywords: anti-counterfeit; sensor; shape memory material; shape memory polymer; temperature sensor; wetting sensor.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

51878420/National Natural Science Foundation of China