Smart Plastics

Smart plastics, or stimuli-responsive polymers, owe their adaptability to a molecular structure that reacts to light or temperature.

These polymers, often built from monomers like N-isopropylacrylamide, form chains with functional groups enabling reversible transitions.

At the University of Texas at Austin, light-sensitive smart plastics use monomers that, under blue LED light and a photoactive catalyst like ruthenium polypyridyl complexes, form ordered, semicrystalline regions with tightly packed chains, boosting rigidity tenfold.

Unlit areas remain amorphous, with loosely entangled chains for flexibility.

This catalyst-driven crystallization enables applications in flexible electronics and soft robotics.