Geometric imperfection, known as a detrimental effect on the buckling load of cylindrical shells, has a new role under the emerging trend of using buckling for smart purposes. Eigenshape-based geometries were designed on the shell surface with the aim of tailoring the postbuckling response. Fourteen seeded geometric imperfection (SGI) cylinders were fabricated using polymer-based 3D printing, a...

Responsive polymers attached to the inside of nano/micro-pores have attracted great interest owing to the prospect of designing flow-control devices and signal responsive delivery systems. An intriguing possibility involves functionalizing nanoporous materials with smart polymers to modulate biomolecular transport in response to pH, temperature, ionic concentration, light or electric field. The...

Recently, stimuli-responsive polymer gels attract attention as functional soft materials in the research fields of microfluidic systems. Several applications as a smart microvalve or micropump to switch the direction of flow automatically or extrude fluid are attempted (1, 2). Conventional microvalves made of hard and dry materials such as piezoelectric elements (3), shape-memory alloy (4), etc...

A highly transparent, flexible, stretchable and patternable copper fiber heater was successfully fabricated for potential use in smart windows and other applications. The thickness of the electrospun polymer nanofibers was controlled during subsequent copper plating by adjusting the electroplating time, with minimal sacrifice in transparency. Self-fused junctions, formed via electroplating, sig...

Smart materials that respond to a stimulus or their environment to produce a dynamic and reversible change in critical properties are in focus of actual research. [ 1 ] Among several stimuli, photochromism is receiving increasing attention because of its potential applications in molecular switching, lenses, and data storage among others. [ 2 ] In general, photochromic molecules can turn any co...

Smart polymer nanogel-assisted drug delivery systems have attracted more and more attention in cancer chemotherapy because of their well-defined morphologies and pleiotropic functions in recent years. In this work, an L-cystine-crosslinked reduction-responsive polypeptide nanogel of methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(L-phenylalanine-co-L-cystine) (mPEG-P(LP-co-LC)) was employed as a smart excip...

Although the energy densities of batteries continue to increase, safety problems (for example, fires and explosions) associated with the use of highly flammable liquid organic electrolytes remain a big issue, significantly hindering further practical applications of the next generation of high-energy batteries. We have fabricated a novel "smart" nonwoven electrospun separator with thermal-trigg...

We study theoretically the lamellar-disorder-lamellar phase transitions of AB diblock and tetrablock copolymers confined in symmetric slitlike pores where the planar surface discriminatingly adsorbs A segments but repels B segments, mimicking the hydrophobic/hydrophilic effects that have been recently utilized for the fabrication of environmentally responsive "smart" materials. The effects of f...