Extreme thermodynamics with polymer gel tori: harnessing thermodynamic instabilities to induce large-scale deformations

Ya-Wen Chang, Michael S. Dimitriyev, Anton Souslov +5

When a swollen, thermoresponsive polymer gel is heated in a solvent bath, it expels solvent and deswells. When this heating is slow, deswelling proceeds homogeneously, as observed…