This technology combines nonlinear mechanics and 3D printing to embody control logic in advanced materials. These materials can be programmed to spontaneously change shape and/or function in response to changes to the environment (exposure to solvents, changes in humidity, pH, etc.) without using the mechatronics approaches that would traditionally be required (batteries, sensors, actuators, etc.).

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Roll-to-Roll (R2R) Surface Wrinkle Printing is a scalable manufacturing technology for the production of surface micro/nanowrinkles using an inexpensive process. Surface wrinkles are everywhere in daily life, such as in fingerprints, while R2R processing is widely used in industrial settings such as newspaper printing. Combining R2R concept and wrinkling mechanism, this technology offers the advantages of high throughput, scalability, and cost effectiveness.

Manufactured wrinkles have feature sizes from hundreds of nanometers to hundreds of microns. Large-area micro/nanowrinkles can find many potential applications such as tunable optics, biomedical research, stretchable electronics, coatings with controlled wettability and adhesion, and more.

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