Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Abstract Shape-memory polymers (SMPs) have two unique features. First, they can recover from a temporary shape to their permanent shape upon external stimuli. Second, the stiffness can be changed by several orders of magnitude in response to a change in temperature or when exposed to an aqueous environment. These two features have made SMPs promising materials for use in neural interfaces. The devices using SMPs as substrates can be initially programmed to a compact temporary shape with a high stiffness for minimally invasive implantation. The SMP substrate can then be deployed to a soft and large configuration, which overcomes the tremendous mismatch in stiffness between traditional hard devices and soft tissues. Since the pioneering work of using thiol-ene-based SMPs as neural interfaces in the Voit group, considerable progress has been achieved in this field. In this work, we review the progress of SMP-based neural interfaces up to date. Several representative designs of the devices will be first presented to show the integration of SMP substrates with electrodes. The following sections discuss the characterization methods for SMPs, including their mechanical properties and biocompatibility. Finally, the paper provides several examples of in-vivo function recording of neural signals using SMP-based neural interfaces.
Dai et al. (Tue,) studied this question.