Smart and Functional Materials: Exploring Novel Properties and Applications in Sensors, Actuators, and Adaptive Structures

Dear Colleagues,

Smart and functional materials have emerged as a transformative field in materials science and engineering, offering unique properties that enable applications in a wide range of industries, from aerospace to healthcare. This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive platform for researchers and engineers to showcase recent advancements, innovative approaches, and breakthroughs in the development and utilization of smart and functional materials. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, shape memory alloys, self-healing materials, and responsive polymers. We invite contributions that highlight the synthesis, characterization, modeling, and application of these materials, with a particular focus on their integration into sensors, actuators, and adaptive structures.

This Special Issue aims to bring together researchers, scientists, and engineers working on smart and functional materials to share their insights, discoveries, and innovations. By exploring the unique properties and diverse applications of these materials in sensors, actuators, and adaptive structures, we anticipate contributing to the advancement of this exciting field and inspiring future research and development. We encourage submissions on a broad spectrum of topics related to smart and functional materials.

Potential topics for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

• Novel SMA compositions and processing techniques.
• Applications of SMAs in aerospace, robotics, and medical devices.
• SMA-based actuators and sensors for precision engineering.
• Mechanisms of self-healing in polymers, ceramics, and composites.
• Self-healing materials for sustainable infrastructure and coatings.
• Self-healing materials in healthcare and automotive applications.
• Design and synthesis of stimuli-responsive polymers.
• Responsive polymers in drug delivery and tissue engineering.
• Responsive polymer composites for adaptive structures.
• Advanced characterization techniques for smart materials.
• Computational modeling and simulation of material behavior.
• Multiscale modeling approaches for predicting material responses.
• Smart materials in the development of wearable sensors.
• Adaptive structures for architecture and civil engineering.
• Biomedical applications of smart materials and devices.

We look forward to your contributions to and participation in this Special Issue.

Dr. Kunal Mondal
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. ChemEngineering 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 1600 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.

• shape memory alloys (SMAs)
• self-healing materials
• responsive polymers
• characterization and modeling
• applications