Near-Infrared Light-Induced Sequential Shape Recovery and Separation of Assembled Temperature Memory Polymer Microparticles.

Light-induced, shape-changing polymeric microparticles have many applications. Here, the near-infrared (NIR)-light-triggered sequential recovery and separation of assembled large and small polymer microparticles using cross-linked blends of poly(ethylene-vinyl acetate) and trans-polyisoprene as temperature memory polymers as well as two NaYF based up-conversion nanoparticles (UCPs) to provide luminescent and photothermal effects are reported. Under irradiation of NIR light with a low light power density, small particles assembled onto the compressed large one recover first due to the low switching temperature (T ) arising from the temperature-memory effect.