A simple strategy is presented for the fabrication of shape-memory materials containing commercial rubbers including natural rubber, cis-polybutadiene, and styrene-butadiene rubber. Dissolution of the rubbers in n-octadecyl acrylate (C18A) monomer followed by UV polymerization at 30 °C leads to the formation of interconnected interpenetrating polymer networks (c-IPNs) possessing crystalline domains. They exhibit melting (T m ) and crystallization temperatures (T cry ) between 45-50 and 35-40 °C, respectively, that can be tuned by the amount and the type of the rubbers. All c-IPNs exhibit a significant temperature sensitivity in their viscoelastic and mechanical properties when the temperature is changed between below and above T m and T cry . The morphology of c-IPNs consists of amorphous nanoparticles of around 64 nm diameter composed of interconnected noncrystalline poly(C18A) (PC18A) and rubber networks, surrounded by crystalline PC18A segments. c-IPNs exhibit tunable mechanical properties, for example, their Young's modulus and toughness can be varied between 8.3-73 MPa, and 1.9-23 MJ•m −3 , respectively, by changing the amount and type of the rubber. Because of the coexistence of chemical cross-links and crystalline domains acting as the netpoints and switching segments, respectively, c-IPNs exhibit an efficient shape-memory function as demonstrated by their potential application as a robotic gripper.

Foreign body aspiration continues to be a serious problem in childhood and adolescent period with significant rate of morbidity and rarely mortality. Half of the foreign body aspiration cases have no history of aspiration. The main foreign bodies inhaled are food fragments and different kinds of metallic objects. A 12-year-old girl was referred to the pediatric pulmonology department for chronic cough and hemoptysis. She had persistent infiltration and cavitary lesion mimicking cavitary tuberculosis. There was no contact history with tuberculosis in her family and acid resistant bacillus was not found in the sputum examination. Flexible bronchoscopy was performed for persistent infiltration and hemoptysis and inflamed thread was found in right lower lobe bronchus. This is the first case of thread inhalation mimicking cavitary tuberculosis in an adolescent patient.

Several strategies have been developed in the past two decades to increase the mechanical performance of the hydrogels, and to generate self-healing function within the polymer network. Here, we combine two of these strategies to create hydrophobically modified nanocomposite (NC) hydrogels with high mechanical strength and self-healing efficiency. The hydrogels were prepared by in situ copolymerization of N,N-dimethylacrylamide and n-octadecyl acrylate (C18A) in the presence of 2 w/v % Laponite clay nanoparticles in an aqueous solution of worm-like sodium dodecyl sulfate micelles. Incorporation of hydrophobic C18A segments into the gel network significantly increases both the storage and loss moduli of NC hydrogels indicating increasing elasticity and energy dissipation. An improvement in the mechanical performance and self-recoverability of NC hydrogels was also observed after hydrophobic modification. The compressive fracture stress and Young's modulus increase with increasing amount of C18A, and they become 9 AE 1 MPa and 30 AE 2 kPa, respectively, at 4 mol % C18A. Incorporation of hydrophobic segments also provides a larger energy dissipation under large strain as compared to the traditional NC hydrogels providing a self-healing efficiency of 90 AE 10% in mechanically strong NC hydrogels.