ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Picture a rubber band that can temporarily lock itself into a new shape when stretched.
A University of Rochester professor and his team have developed a new material. It's called a shape memory polymer and it's capable of lifting 1,000 times its mass. Touch it with a heat source around body temperature and the material reverts back to its original shape, performing work as it goes.
Professor Mitch Anthamatten says this break-through is being investigated for medical applications and beyond.
"What we're trying to do is to get surfaces to have shape memory to enable a printing process that is assisted by this shape memory so that one could maybe manufacture, on a large scale, patterned films," said Dr. Mitchell Anthamatten, associate professor of chemical engineering.
Anthamatten says he and his team are now working to get more elastic energy stored into the polymer so it can perform more work during recovery. Eventually, the material could be used for sutures, artificial skin, medical dispensers and self-fitting apparel.