Water-Responsive Shape-Memory Origami Enabled by a Washi–Bulk pNIPAAm Hydrogel Hybrid Sheet
- 1H. Suzuki School of Science and Engineering
- 2Chuo University
Abstract
Origami transforms two-dimensional sheets into complex three-dimensional forms through folding and has evolved from a traditional art into a versatile design principle for deployable and reconfigurable structures. Here, we develop a water-responsive shape-memory origami sheet by combining highly concentrated poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (bulk pNIPAAm) hydrogel with Japanese kozo paper. Bulk pNIPAAm undergoes pronounced hydrationinduced softening and recovers its permanent shape upon rehydration, whereas the paper scaffold enables the hydrogel to be fabricated and handled as a thin, foldable sheet. Rather than programming only individual active creases, the hybrid sheet allows complex folded three-dimensional configurations to be programmed directly as permanent shapes. Two complementary programming strategies are demonstrated: photopolymerization of precursorimpregnated paper in a pre-folded configuration and post-fabrication programming by local photopolymerization at selected creases. Kozo washi-based hybrid sheets exhibited more than 90% recovery within several seconds in a simple folding test, and Miura-fold, crane, dolphin, and kirigami structures recovered their memorized geometries after unfolding and dehydration-induced temporary fixation. Finally, simply pouring warm water onto a flowershaped structure triggers spontaneous blooming without full immersion. This approach transforms a bulk shape-memory hydrogel into a fold-programmable sheet material and
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BibTeX
@misc{murata2026waterresponsive,
title = {{Water-Responsive Shape-Memory Origami Enabled by a Washi–Bulk pNIPAAm Hydrogel Hybrid Sheet}},
author = {Kohei Murata and Hiroaki Suzuki},
howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv.15010023/v1},
url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15010023/v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Water-Responsive Shape-Memory Origami Enabled by a Washi–Bulk pNIPAAm Hydrogel Hybrid Sheet
AU - Kohei Murata
AU - Hiroaki Suzuki
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
PB - ChemRxiv
DO - 10.26434/chemrxiv.15010023/v1
UR - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15010023/v1
AB - Origami transforms two-dimensional sheets into complex three-dimensional forms through folding and has evolved from a traditional art into a versatile design principle for deployable and reconfigurable structures. Here, we develop a water-responsive shape-memory origami sheet by combining highly concentrated poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (bulk pNIPAAm) hydrogel with Japanese kozo paper. Bulk pNIPAAm undergoes pronounced hydrationinduced softening and recovers its permanent shape upon rehydration, whereas the paper scaffold enables the hydrogel to be fabricated and handled as a thin, foldable sheet. Rather than programming only individual active creases, the hybrid sheet allows complex folded three-dimensional configurations to be programmed directly as permanent shapes. Two complementary programming strategies are demonstrated: photopolymerization of precursorimpregnated paper in a pre-folded configuration and post-fabrication programming by local photopolymerization at selected creases. Kozo washi-based hybrid sheets exhibited more than 90% recovery within several seconds in a simple folding test, and Miura-fold, crane, dolphin, and kirigami structures recovered their memorized geometries after unfolding and dehydration-induced temporary fixation. Finally, simply pouring warm water onto a flowershaped structure triggers spontaneous blooming without full immersion. This approach transforms a bulk shape-memory hydrogel into a fold-programmable sheet material and
ER -