Fabrication and thermo-mechanical characterization of 3D nanostructured shape memory polymer

Abstract

Shape memory polymer is a stimuli-responsive polymer which can change its shape when exposed to the external stimuli and have various applications. Recently, with the help of the advances in nano-lithography fabrication techniques, polymers having three dimensional structures with few hundred nanometers have been fabricated and its mechanical responses are reported. But due to the limitations of the fabrication techniques, functional polymer nanostructures including the shape memory polymer nanostructures are barely reported. In this thesis, cm-scale 3D nanostructured shape memory polymer was successfully fabricated using 3D-photolithography technique and thermo-mechanical properties of the as-fabricated sample was characterized. It is expected that this research will help the future fabrication of various temperature-triggered flexible devices.