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Multiple shape memory thermosets for various engineering applications have been quickly developed in recent years, mainly due to their stable thermomechanical performance, environmental stability, excellent chemical, solvent resistance, etc. However, these thermosets are inherently non-recyclable due to their chemically crosslinked properties, and it is difficult to make the permanent shapes of these thermosets sophisticated and geometrically complex, which significantly restricts a great variety of engineering applications in the industry and technology fields, mainly due to the economic inefficiency and environmental impact. Here, a thermoset with recyclability, multiple shape memory effect (multi-SME), and permanent shape reconfiguration is reported. After recycling, it also exhibits excellent mechanical properties without sacrificing the excellent multi-SME, combined elasticity (shape memory), and solid state plasticity, which can be easily scaled up and generalized to a variety of dynamic covalent networks.
Wang et al. (Wed,) studied this question.