Regenerative Living 4D Printing via Reversible Growth of Polymer Networks.

(Living creatures possess complex geometries, exceptional adaptability, and continuous growing and regenerating characteristics, which are difficult for synthetic materials to imitate simultaneously. We report a living polymer network with these features. The polymer can be digitally printed into arbitrary 3D shapes and subsequently undergo growth via living polymerization of a monomer as the nutrient. This leads to macroscopic dimensional growth and transforms the printed amorphous network into a crystallizable network, resulting in geometric adaptability via a shape memory mechanism. By controlling the localized growth, an initial homogeneous structure can be converted into a geometrically different heterogeneous structure composed of materials with different properties (crystallization and mechanical properties). After growth, the original network can be chemically regenerated for regrowth. With this regenerative living 4D printing, one 3D printed seed template can be turned into different derivatives with distinct geometries and mechanical properties when repeated regeneration is conducted in different localized regions and the degree of regrowth is varied). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.