Polymeric shape memory materials and actuators

In this article, we present a brief review about polymeric shape memory materials (SMMs) and typical applications of these materials for functioning as actuators. A couple of generic working mechanisms to enable the shape memory effect (SME) in materials are introduced, together with some relatively new shape memory phenomena, such as the multiple-SME, temperature memory effect (TME), mechano-responsive SME, etc. It is revealed that now we are able to not only design/syntheses a polymeric material, but also to tailor its performance to well meet the requirement(s) of a particular application. It is concluded that the shape memory technology (SMT) provides us a powerful tool to produce far greater impact to reshape both product design and fabrication.