Dear Colleagues,

One of the basic processes of living organisms is response to stimuli. Using this fundamental, natural process as a basis, scientists have long been involved in the development of novel materials that respond to external stimuli. Stimuli-responsive polymers are polymers that respond to various external stimuli such as pH, temperature, ionic strength, surfactants, pressure, light, magnetic field, and enzymes. An important feature of these polymers is reversibility. These polymers have the ability to return to their initial state upon application of a counter-trigger. Given this important reversible stimuli-responsive property, these materials have found applications in targeted drug delivery systems, biosensing, tissue regeneration, wound healing, artificial organs, and more.

Progress in medicine today heavy relies on the development of new systems to detect and treat pathological events during the early stages with minimal side effects. In this respect, stimuli-responsive systems are of particular interest, as response to external stimuli represents an important property in medical applications. A large variety of stimuli-responsive polymers has been developed to serve diagnostic and therapeutic processes, and this field continues to grow. Understanding the structure–property relationships of new stimuli-responsive materials is highly essential for rational design with targeted applications in medicine.

For this Special Issue, “Current Trends and Advances in Stimuli-Responsive Polymers and Hydrogels”, we will consider manuscripts that deal with synthesis methodologies, structure–property relationships, and biomedical applications of stimuli-responsive polymers.

Dr. G Roshan Deen
Prof. Dr. Jan Skov Pedersen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Stimuli-responsive polymers and hydrogels
• Hybrid hydrogels
• Advanced characterization
• Self-assembly
• Biomedical applications
• Polymer materials
• Physical characterization
• Biomedical applications
• Polymer engineering