Solubilization of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) using noncovalently interacting polymer surfactants in aqueous media has opened up a new vista of SWNTs in biology and medicine. In many potential applications, it is desirable to control the dispersion or aggregation of SWNTs in solvents with external stimuli. Here we report two "smart" SWNT dispersions that respond to temperature and pH...

Supramolecular polymer gels show promise for use in batteries, supercapacitors, and multifunctional sensors. However, their poor stiffness ionic conductivity hinder large-scale utilization. Here, a cellulose-based supramolecular bio-polymer gel (SBPG) with high exceptional is reported. These properties have been translated into proof-of-concept iontronic pressure sensors an ultra-high sensitivi...

The structure and material properties of polymer networks can depend sensitively on changes in the environment. There is a great deal of progress in the development of stimuli-responsive hydrogels for applications like sensors, self-repairing materials or actuators. Biocompatible, smart hydrogels can be used for applications, such as controlled drug delivery and release, or for artificial muscl...

An infrastructure adapted to dynamic wireless recharging of electric vehicles is often referred to generically as Electric Road (“e-road”). E-roads are deemed to become essential components of future grid environments and smart city strategies. Several technologies already exist that propose different ways to integrate dynamic inductive charging systems within the infrastructure. One e-road sol...

Rapid developments of structural sensing and control, data acquisition and processing, and computer technologies have made it feasible to monitor the structural health of large-scale structures in real time. SHM of large-scale infrastructures has increasingly attracted extensive interests from both fields of research and application. Based on recent research achievements of developing smart SHM...

In agricultural field, polymers are widely used for many applications. Although they were used, in the first time, just as structural materials (inhert polymers), in the last decades functionalized polymers revolutionized the agricultural and food industry with new tools for several applications. Smart polymeric materials and smart delivery systems helped the agricultural industry to combat vir...

A strategy called macro-(affinity ligand) facilitated three-phase partitioning (MLFTPP) is described for refolding of a diverse set of recombinant proteins starting from the solubilized inclusion bodies. It essentially consists of: (i) binding of the protein with a suitable smart polymer and (ii) precipitating the polymer-protein complex as an interfacial layer by mixing in a suitable amount of...

In the past decade, dielectric elastomers have emerged as promising multifunctional smart energy-transduction materials in several actuation, sensing, and electric power generation applications. As actuators, dielectric elastomers have demonstrated strains (over 300%) and specific energy density (over 3.4 J/g) larger than that observed in any other field-activated smart material. In generator m...

This review article summarizes the preparation of polymer/carbon nanotube (CNT) nanocomposites and their applications as electrorheological (ER) fluids. These ER fluids exhibited a controllable electro-response under an applied electric field due to the presence of well-dispersed CNTs. The background, morphology, preparations, and characteristics of these materials are discussed, specifically f...

Zero temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) is essential for the precise control of temperature in heating element and sensor applications. Many studies have focused on developing zero-TCR systems with inorganic compounds; however, very few have dealt with developing zero-TCR systems with polymeric materials. Composite systems with a polymer matrix and a conducting filler show either a neg...