TY - JOUR A1 - Pretsch, Thorsten A1 - Ecker, Melanie A1 - Schildhauer, Markus A1 - Maskos, Michael T1 - Switchable information carriers based on shape memory polymer JF - Journal of materials chemistry N2 - Herein we demonstrate the realization of a new technological concept, which enables the use of shape memory polymers (SMPs) as switchable information carriers. At first, we applied a surface-specific dyeing process based on 'guest-diffusion' on two sophisticated polymeric host materials, including a thermoplastic poly(ester urethane) SMP and a thermoset epoxy-based SMP. Upon drying, self-assembly of the dye molecules inside the polymer surfaces occurred, resulting in homogeneous color penetration depths of about 100 µm. Subsequently, the colored surfaces were patterned with quick response (QR) codes. For this purpose, laser ablation was used. The resulting cavity depth was exceeding the color penetration depth. This assured sufficient surface contrast and rendered the QR codes machine-readable. In a progressive approach, two thermo-mechanical functionalization protocols were designed in accordance with the thermal properties of the polymers. As a result of programming, the tag prototypes were converted into stable, temporary shapes with non-decodable QR code information. When thermally triggering the shape memory effect on the functionalized tags, we verified the mostly complete recovery of the polymer surface and the associated restoration into the almost original shape. As such, the QR code could again precisely be read out. We anticipate that tagging products with these information carriers is helpful for the purpose of secure one-time identification. KW - Shape memory polymer KW - Epoxy-based polymer KW - Poly(ester urethane) KW - Thermo-responsive polymer KW - Laser ablation KW - Laser marking KW - QR code KW - Functionalized tags KW - Tag technology KW - Smart tagging KW - Switchable information carrier KW - Authentification KW - Identification KW - Surface-specific dyeing KW - Guest diffusion PY - 2012 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/c2jm16204k SN - 0959-9428 SN - 1364-5501 VL - 22 IS - 16 SP - 7757 EP - 7766 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge AN - OPUS4-25737 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -