SHAPE MEMORY POLYMERIC MATERIALS FOR BIOAPPLICATIONS

Abstract

Stimuli-responsive systems may be found all around nature, providing inspiration for the design of synthetic smart materials which respond to their surroundings. Shape memory materials are examples of such adaptive materials that are able to recover their stored shapes when exposed to external stimuli, which include temperature, light, magnetic fields, electrical currents, pH, water etc. Over the years, much effort has been put into studying different classes of shape memory materials. Shape memory polymeric materials – which may include copolymers, polymer blends, polymer composites and hydrogels – are of particular interest due to their versatility in design and application. In this thesis, the design and synthesis of different shape memory polymeric systems that respond to different stimuli are presented. The different SMP systems are also characterised and studied for their material properties and stimuli-responsiveness to afford their shape memory properties.