Jerry Qi | School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology | Advanced Materials

Active Structures Enabled by Magnetic Shape Memory Polymers: A magnetic shape memory polymer uses the embedded magnetic particles to regulate the material stiffness and induce actuation. This enables the integrated shape-manipulation functions, including untethered rapid reversible shape change, sequential actuation, shape locking, and reprogrammability. The integrated functions permit applications such as soft grippers with large grabbing force, morphing flowers that can be used as a platform for electronic device, and minimally invasive biomedical devices. (Adv. Mater. 2020, 32, 1906657). Contributors: Qiji Ze, Shuai Wu, Ruike Renee Zhao, Xiao Kuang, H. Jerry Qi