Photolithographic Fabrication of Mechanically Adaptive Devices.

ABSTRACT: Water-responsive polymers, which enable the design of objects whose mechanical properties or shape can be altered upon moderate swelling, are useful for a broad range of applications. However, the limited processing options of materials that exhibit useful switchable mechanical properties generally restricted their application to objects having a simple geometry. Here we show that this problem can be overcome by using a negative photoresist approach in which a linear hydrophilic polymer is converted into a highly transparent cross-linked polymer network. The photolithographic process allows the facile production of objects of complex shape and permits programming of the cross-link density, the extent of aqueous swelling, and thereby the stiffness and refractive index under physiological co

SUBMITTER: Monney B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9954391 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature