Temperature-Induced Morphological Transitions for On-Demand Detachment in Worm-Based Polymer Hydrogels

Temperature-responsive materials are vital for applications relating to on-demand detachable adhesives, as they enable rapid, damage-free detachment. However, low-temperature responsive systems often lack pronounced phase change, which can lead to undesirable mechanical interlocking with complicated substrate interfaces. Polymerisation-induced self-assembly (PISA) has been effectively employed to fabricate worm-like hydrogels exhibiting temperature-induced phase transitions; however, its application in on-demand detachment remains underexplored. Building on this, we leverage precise morphological tuning across a broad temperature range (1 to 70 °C) to modulate the hydrogel phase. Our hydrogel exhibits a reversible transition from a robust adhesive state at room temperature to a non-adhesive liquid phase upon both cooling and heating. This approach overcomes the limitations associated with low- and high-temperature responsive detachment on complex surfaces, thereby broadening its utility.