switchable

These properties make them ideal to be used as switchable adhesives that can adapt to various surfaces.

Professor Hsia added: "The shape-memory polymer adhesives we designed overcome both the adhesion paradox and the switchability conflict, providing guidelines for developing stronger and more switchable adhesives adaptable to rough surfaces."

To date, CFN has used DNA-directed assembly to produce switchable thin films, 3D nanosuperconductors, and more.

"The control offered by heating and cooling could be used in many fields to make novel materials with switchable electronic properties, especially those involving multi-electron transfer," says Ishigaki.

Graphene disks could conceivably be used as switchable electromagnets to control future spintronic chips.