ABSTRACT
Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are a kind of smart soft material that can hold temporary shape and come back to the initial shape under some external stimuli, such as temperature, light, Joule heating, magnetic field, solution, etc. Since the shape memory effect (SME) was found, researchers coming from all over the world were paying more and more attention to the synthesis process. According to the cross-linking of molecular structures, SMPs can be classified into thermoset and thermoplastic SMPs. As for thermoplastic SMP, the SME would be missing with the increasing cycle times due to stress relaxation and fracture of molecular chains. The temperature-actuated SMPs/SMPCs were one of earliest and most successful methods of stimulating the shape recovery. Electricity and magnetic field-actuated SMPs/SMPCs could be seen as an indirectly thermal-actuated method, which transferred the electricity and magnetic effect into Joule heating to realize the deployment of SMPs/SMPCs.
