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Polymers
Special Issues
Stretchable and Smart Polymers II
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Stretchable and Smart Polymers II

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Physics and Theory".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2022) | Viewed by 6685

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Ho-Hsiu Chou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University No. 101, Sec. 2, Kuang-Fu Road, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
Interests: organic semiconducting materials; soft functional materials and electronics; stretchable electronics; electronic skin; photocatalysis; energy coversion technology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Stretchable and smart polymers act as crucial materials for the next generation technology. This Special Issue focuses on the use of new strategies for developing polymers with innovative properties, such as stretchability and smart functionalities, including self-healing and sensing ability. This topic covers the newest strategies and most recent progress in the preparation of such functional molecular polymers for different applications. The broad and growing interest in utilizing such functional polymers as active elements in various stretchable and self-healing materials and electronics, including conductors, sensors, smart elastomers, photovoltaics, transistors, batteries, and light-emitting diodes, is well represented in this Special Issue. Recent findings and reviews from experts in this frontier sector are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Ho-Hsiu Chou
Guest Editor

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.

Keywords

  • Stretchable polymers
  • Smart polymers
  • Soft and bio-inspired materials
  • Self-healing and healable polymers
  • (Bio)nanocomposites
  • Flexible and stretchable (opto)electronics
  • Electronics skin/electronic synapse
  • Flexible sensors
  • Soft robots and actuators
  • Smart elastomers
  • Stretchable conductors
  • Biomaterials and bioelectronics

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 16713 KiB  
Article
A NIR-Light-Driven Twisted and Coiled Polymer Actuator with a PEDOT-Tos/Nylon-6 Composite for Durable and Remotely Controllable Artificial Muscle
by Inwook Hwang, Seongcheol Mun, Hyungcheol Shin and Sungryul Yun
Polymers 2022, 14(3), 432; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/polym14030432 - 21 Jan 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1867
Abstract
In this paper, we proposed a novel light-driven polymer actuator that could produce remotely controllable tensile stroke in response to near infrared (NIR) light. The light-driven polymer actuator was composed of a twisted and coiled nylon-6 fiber (TCN) and a thin poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped [...] Read more.
In this paper, we proposed a novel light-driven polymer actuator that could produce remotely controllable tensile stroke in response to near infrared (NIR) light. The light-driven polymer actuator was composed of a twisted and coiled nylon-6 fiber (TCN) and a thin poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with p-toluenesulfonate (PEDOT-Tos) layer. By adopting dip-coating methodology with thermal polymerization process, we constructed a thin and uniform PEDOT-Tos layer on the surface of the three-dimensional TCN structure. Thanks to the PEDOT-Tos layer with excellent NIR light absorption characteristic, the NIR light illumination via a small LEDs array allowed the multiple PEDOT-Tos coated TCN actuators to be photo-thermally heated to a fairly consistent temperature and to simultaneously produce a contractile strain that could be modulated as high as 8.7% with light power. The actuation performance was reversible without any significant hysteresis and highly durable during 3000 cyclic operations via repetitive control of the LEDs. Together with its simple structure and facile fabrication, the light-driven actuator can lead to technical advances in artificial muscles due to its attractive benefits from remote controllability without complex coupled instruments and electromagnetic interference. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stretchable and Smart Polymers II)
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14 pages, 4440 KiB  
Article
Large-Area Fabrication of Structurally Colored and Humidity Sensitive Composite Nanofilm via Ultrasonic Spray-Coating
by Sijun Li, Donghui Kou, Shufen Zhang and Wei Ma
Polymers 2021, 13(21), 3768; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/polym13213768 - 30 Oct 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2613
Abstract
Intelligent structural colors have received extensive attention in recent years due to their diverse applications. However, the large-area, uniform, and cost-effective fabrication of ultra-thin structural color films is still challenging. Here, for the first time, we design and employ an ultrasonic spray-coating technique [...] Read more.
Intelligent structural colors have received extensive attention in recent years due to their diverse applications. However, the large-area, uniform, and cost-effective fabrication of ultra-thin structural color films is still challenging. Here, for the first time, we design and employ an ultrasonic spray-coating technique with non-toxic, green nano-silica and polyvinylpyrrolidone as raw materials, to prepare structural color films on silicon wafers. Due to the addition of polyvinylpyrrolidone, the coffee-ring effect during droplet drying is suppressed and uniform composite films are formed. We further perform a detailed study of the influence of various processing parameters including silica/polyvinylpyrrolidone concentration, substrate temperature, nozzle-to-substrate distance, and number of spray-passes on film roughness and thickness. By increasing the number of spray-passes from 10 to 30, the film thickness from 120 to 340 nm is modulated, resulting in different colors, and large-area and uniform colors on commercial round silicon wafers with 15 cm diameter are achieved. The silica/polyvinylpyrrolidone composite films show strong hydrophilicity and are sensitive to humidity changes, leading to quickly tunable and reversible structural colors. Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation demonstrates water vapor adsorption and condensation on the nanofilm when increasing environmental humidity. Thereby, ultrasonic spray-coating as a novel film fabrication technique provides a feasible scheme for large-area preparation of intelligent structural colors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stretchable and Smart Polymers II)
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15 pages, 2900 KiB  
Article
Antagonist Concepts of Polypyrrole Actuators: Bending Hybrid Actuator and Mirrored Trilayer Linear Actuator
by Rudolf Kiefer, Ngoc Tuan Nguyen, Quoc Bao Le, Gholamreza Anbarjafari and Tarmo Tamm
Polymers 2021, 13(6), 861; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/polym13060861 - 11 Mar 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1572
Abstract
Following the natural muscle antagonist actuation principle, different adaptations for “artificial muscles” are introduced in this work. Polypyrrole (PPy) films of different polymerization techniques (potentiostatic and galvanostatic) were analyzed and their established responses were combined in several ways, resulting in beneficial actuation modes. [...] Read more.
Following the natural muscle antagonist actuation principle, different adaptations for “artificial muscles” are introduced in this work. Polypyrrole (PPy) films of different polymerization techniques (potentiostatic and galvanostatic) were analyzed and their established responses were combined in several ways, resulting in beneficial actuation modes. A consecutive “one-pot” electrosynthesis of two layers with the different deposition regimes resulted in an all-PPy bending hybrid actuator. While in most cases the mixed-ion activity of conductive polymers has been considered a problem or a drawback, here for the first time, the nearly equal expansions upon oxidation and reduction of carefully selected conditions further allowed to fabricate a “mirrored” trilayer laminate, which behaved as a linear actuator. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stretchable and Smart Polymers II)
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