Mechanically mutable polymer enabled by light.

ABSTRACT: Human skin is a remarkable example of a biological material that displays unique mechanical characters of both soft elasticity and stretchability. However, mimicking these features has been absent in photoresponsive soft matters. Here, we present one synthetic ABA-type triblock copolymer consisting of polystyrene as end blocks and one photoresponsive azopolymer as the middle block, which is stiffness at room temperature and shows a phototunable transition to soft elastics athermally. We have synthesized an elastics we term "photoinduced soft elastomer," where the photo-evocable soft midblock of azopolymer and the glassy polystyrene domains act as elastic matrix and physical cross-linking junctions, respectively. On the basis of the photoswitchable transformation between stiffness and elast

SUBMITTER: Cai F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9401616 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature