Thermo-responsive self-folding feedstock with excellent shape memory programming

• Published in: Chemical papers Vol. 77; no. 6; pp. 3145 - 3154
• Main Authors: Suryavanshi, Purushottam, Kawre, Shubham, Maniruzzaman, Mohammed, Seth, Kapileswar, Banerjee, Subham
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Warsaw Versita 01.06.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acrylamide; Biochemistry; Biotechnology; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chemistry/Food Science; Drug delivery systems; Encapsulation; Folding; Fourier transforms; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Infrared spectroscopy; Materials Science; Medicinal Chemistry; Original Paper; Photon correlation spectroscopy; Polyisopropyl acrylamide; Polymers; Raw materials; Shape effects; Shape memory; Smart materials; Synthesis; pNIPAM-4ABP; Feedstock; Thermo-responsive; Shape-memory behavior; Self-folding
• ISSN: 0366-6352; 2585-7290; 1336-9075
• DOI: 10.1007/s11696-023-02693-8

Shape memory polymers are smart materials that have the thermo-/chemo-responsive shape memory effect, can react to environmental stimuli, and exhibit excellent shape-fixity, shape-recovery and folding/unfolding effects. This type of shape memory polymer has shown great potential in the design and development of various drug delivery systems/devices. However, they have some intrinsic shortcomings, such as biodegradability, slow response rate, poor encapsulation ability of hydrophobic/hydrophilic drugs etc. These phenomenon sometimes limit their application in developing suitable drug delivery systems. In this study, we synthesized and characterized a poly( n -isopropyl acrylamide-4-acryloyloxy benzophenone) i.e., p(NIPAM-4ABP) based thermo-responsive self-folding shape-memory polymer with an excellent shape-memory behavior. The lower critical solution temperature of the synthesized p(NIPAM-4ABP) was determined using dynamic light scattering analysis to determine the effect of the addition of 4-ABP to the pNIPAM network. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to understand the reversibility of the shape-memory mechanism of the synthesized feedstock. A swelling study in different solvents was performed as a driving force to further encapsulate the drug molecules into p(NIPAM-4ABP) network. Finally, the shape memory behavior of this synthesized polymer was established via converted it into p(NIPAM-4ABP) feedstock to validate the excellent shape memory features. Graphical abstract