Function and Autonomous Behavior of Self-Oscillating Polymer Systems

Self-Oscillating Structural Polymer Gels

Self-oscillating polymer gel has become a distinguished class of smart soft materials. Here we fabricated and demonstrated a self-oscillating structural gel network with the incorporation of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. The structural polymer gel oscillates at a macroscopic level with remarkably faster kinetics compared to a normal gel of similar chemical compositions. The structural...

Shape- and size-dependent patterns in self-oscillating polymer gels†‡

Polymeric hydrogels that exhibit autonomous, coupled chemical and mechanical oscillations are a unique example of synthetic, active soft matter. Here, we explore the effects of gel aspect ratio and absolute dimensions on pattern formation in hydrogels undergoing the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. We synthesize and analyze N-isopropylacrylamide gels containing covalently bound BZ catalyst a...

Rotation number and its properties for iterated function and non-autonomous systems  

The main purpose of this paper is to introduce the rotation number for non-autonomous and iterated function systems. First, we define iterated function systems and the lift of these types of systems on the unit circle. In the following, we define the rotation number and investigate the conditions of existence and uniqueness of this number for our systems. Then, the notions rotational entropy an...

Novel Self-Oscillating Polymer Actuators for Soft Robot

A chaotic self-oscillating sunlight-driven polymer actuator

Nature provides much inspiration for the design of materials capable of motion upon exposure to external stimuli, and many examples of such active systems have been created in the laboratory. However, to achieve continuous motion driven by an unchanging, constant stimulus has proven extremely challenging. Here we describe a liquid crystalline polymer film doped with a visible light responsive f...