Magnetic Shape Memory Polymers with Integrated Multifunctional Shape Manipulations

The work targets soft materials that can change shape in multiple ways—reprogrammably, quickly, reversibly, and with the ability to lock the new shape—without tethered actuation. The authors report a magnetic shape memory polymer composite made from an amorphous shape-memory polymer matrix containing two types of magnetic particles. Magnetic inductive heating from low-coercivity particles softens the matrix, while high-remanence particles with reprogrammable magnetization profiles drive rapid, reversible shape change under magnetic fields. After the material is cooled, the actuated shape can be locked. By changing particle loadings for heating, the system can perform sequential actuation. The abstract also states that these integrated manipulations are used for soft magnetic grippers, sequential logic for computing, and reconfigurable antennas.