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Updated: May 8, 2026
Preparation of Thermoresponsive Nanostructured Surfaces for Tissue Engineering
Published on: March 1, 2016
Microstructured shape memory polymer surfaces with reversible dry adhesion
Jeffrey D Eisenhaure1, Tao Xie, Stephen Varghese
1Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Abstract:
We present a shape memory polymer (SMP) surface with repeatable, very strong (>18 atm), and extremely reversible (strong to weak adhesion ratio of >1 × 10(4)) dry adhesion to a glass substrate. This was achieved by exploiting bulk material properties of SMP and surface microstructuring. Its exceptional dry adhesive performance is attributed to the SMP's rigidity change in response to temperature and its capabilities of temporary shape locking and permanent shape recovery, which when combined with a microtip surface design enables time-independent control of contact area.
