Self-folding origami: Chemical programming allows Nafion sheets to fold and refold

Plastic with a thousand faces: A single piece of Nafion foil makes it possible to produce a broad palette of complex 3-D structures. Researchers now describe how they use simple chemical ‘programming’ to induce the foil to fold itself using origami and kirigami principles. These folds can be repeatedly ‘erased’ and the foil can be ‘reprogrammed’.