The past decade has witnessed remarkable advances in stimuli-responsive shape memory polymers (SMPs) with potential applications in biomedical devices, aerospace, textiles, civil engineering, bionics ...engineering, energy, electronic engineering, and household products. Shape memory polymer composites (SMPCs) have further enhanced and broadened the applications of shape memory polymers. In addition to reinforcement, SMPCs can enable or enhance athermal stimuli-active effects, novel shape memory effect, and new functions. Many athermal stimuli-responsive effects have been achieved such as electroactive effect, magnetic-active effect, water-active effect, and photoactive effect. The typical examples of novel shape memory effects are multiple-shape memory effect, spatially controlled shape memory effect, and two-way shape memory effect. In addition, new functions of SMPCs have been observed and systemically studied such as stimuli-memory effect and self-healing. This feature article presents an up-to-date review on these versatile SMPCs. The various methods to fabricate these SMPCs and the performances of the SMPCs are discussed. The potential directions for future advancement in this field are also discussed.
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Carrier energy-filtering effect at organic-inorganic interface has been proved to be very effective for improving the performance of polymer-based thermoelectric composites. To introduce a large ...amount of organic-inorganic interfaces, Bi.sub.0.5Sb.sub.1.5Te.sub.3 nanoplates (BST NP) are fabricated and embedded into camphorsulfonic acid-doped polyaniline (CSA:PANI) through cryogenic grinding followed by hot pressing. It is found that BST NPs are dispersed uniformly in the matrix to form abundant hybrid interfaces in the CSA:PANI/BST NP composites, which shows great enhancement in Seebeck coefficient and power factor. The improvement can be attributed to energy-filtering effect at the CSA:PANI/BST NP interface, which is supported by the distinct transport behavior between CSA:PANI/BST NP and PANI/BST NP composites. Consequently, the maximum ZT values up to 8.637 x 10.sup.-4 at 300 K and 1.64 x 10.sup.-3 at 400 K are achieved, which is among the best thermoelectric performance of PANI-based bulk composites.
This review focuses on polymers with upper critical solution temperature (UCST) in water or electrolyte solution and provides a detailed survey of the yet few existing examples. A guide for synthetic ...chemists for the design of novel UCST polymers is presented and possible handles to tune the phase transition temperature, sharpness of transition, hysteresis, and effectiveness of phase separation are discussed. This review tries to answer the question why polymers with UCST remained largely underrepresented in academic as well as applied research and what requirements have to be fulfilled to make these polymers suitable for the development of smart materials with a positive thermoresponse.
Why are polymers with UCST in water underrepresented in academic and applied research? This review tries to answer this question. Furthermore, a guide for the synthesis of novel UCST polymers is presented and possible handles to tune the phase transition temperature, sharpness of transition, hysteresis, and effectiveness of phase separation are discussed.
Research on shape–memory polymers (SMPs) has been actively conducted for more than three decades. Recently, interest in this area has intensified. Even though there have been a number of related ...review papers published in the past 3 years, a generalized view on the important aspects of SMPs that would give a holistic picture of this promising area of research is still lacking. This paper will provide a comprehensive review that integrates the achievements in studying SMPs and their derivatives, such as composites and compound structures, as well as their current applications. Concepts, principles/modelings, structures and related synthesis methods, applications and future trends will be examined.
Bioactive Synthetic Polymers Jung, Kenward; Corrigan, Nathaniel; Wong, Edgar H. H. ...
Advanced materials (Weinheim),
01/2022, Letnik:
34, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Synthetic polymers are omnipresent in society as textiles and packaging materials, in construction and medicine, among many other important applications. Alternatively, natural polymers play a ...crucial role in sustaining life and allowing organisms to adapt to their environments by performing key biological functions such as molecular recognition and transmission of genetic information. In general, the synthetic and natural polymer worlds are completely separated due to the inability for synthetic polymers to perform specific biological functions; in some cases, synthetic polymers cause uncontrolled and unwanted biological responses. However, owing to the advancement of synthetic polymerization techniques in recent years, new synthetic polymers have emerged that provide specific biological functions such as targeted molecular recognition of peptides, or present antiviral, anticancer, and antimicrobial activities. In this review, the emergence of this generation of bioactive synthetic polymers and their bioapplications are summarized. Finally, the future opportunities in this area are discussed.
Synthetic polymers as intrinsically bioactive agents. This review presents new opportunities in the development of synthetic polymers with the ability to selectively recognize and bind biological targets, to exert anticancer and/or antibacterial activity, and others that can agglutinate or otherwise bind to viruses.
The ability to trigger changes to material properties with external stimuli, so‐called “smart” behavior, has enabled novel technologies for a wide range of healthcare applications. Response to small ...changes in temperature is particularly attractive, where material transformations may be triggered by contact with the human body. Thermoreversible gelators are materials where warming triggers reversible phase change from low viscosity polymer solution to a gel state. These systems can be generated by the exploitation of macromolecules with lower critical solution temperatures included in their architectures. The resultant materials are attractive for topical and mucosal drug delivery, as well as for injectables. In addition, the materials are attractive for tissue engineering and 3D printing. The fundamental science underpinning these systems is described, along with progress in each class of material and their applications. Significant opportunities exist in the fundamental understanding of how polymer chemistry and nanoscience describe the performance of these systems and guide the rational design of novel systems. Furthermore, barriers to translating technologies must be addressed, for example, rigorous toxicological evaluation is rarely conducted. As such, applications remain tied to narrow fields, and advancements will be made where the existing knowledge in these areas may be applied to novel problems of science.
Thermoreversible gelators that exhibit a reversible switch from a liquid to gel state upon heating have driven groundbreaking innovations in healthcare. These materials may act as in situ gelators for forming drug depots, scaffolds for cells, or in bioprinting. This review concerns the latest progress in this field, highlighting opportunities for future research.
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