Medical treatment for injuries should be easy and quick in many accidents. Plasters or bandages are frequently
used to wrap and fix injured parts. If plasters or bandages have additional smart functions, such as cooling, removability
and repeatability, they will be much more useful and effective. Here we propose innovative biocompatible materials, that
is, nontoxic high-strength shape-memory gels as novel smart medical materials. These smart gels were prepared from
two monomers (DMAAm and SA), a polymer (HPC), and an inter-crosslinking agent (Karenz-MOI). In the synthesis of
the gels, 1) a shape-memory copolymer network is made from the DMAAm and the SA, and 2) the copolymer and the
HPC are crosslinked by the Karenz-MOI. Thus the crosslinking points are connected only between the different
polymers. This is our original technique of developing a new network structure of gels, named Inter-Crosslinking
Network (ICN). The ICN gels achieve high ductility, going up to 700% strain in tensile tests, while the ICN gels contain
about 44% water. Moreover the SA has temperature dependence due to its crystallization properties; thus the ICN gels
obtain shape memory properties and are named ICN-SMG. While the Young's modulus of the ICN-SMG is large below
their crystallization temperature and the gels behave like plastic materials, the modulus becomes smaller above the
temperature and the gels turn back to their original shape.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.