Recent Advances in Smart Gels

Dear Colleagues,

“Smart gels” show sudden and reversible phase transition under the influence of external (physical and chemical) stimuli, such as temperature, pressure, pH, ionic strength, mechanical stress, electrical and magnetic fields, light and chemical triggers, etc. In other words, these materials can change their properties in response to small changes in an external condition. On the basis of external stimuli, they are categorized as thermoresponsive, pH-responsive, shear/stress-responsive, electroresponsive, magnetoresponsive, photoresponsive, chemically activated gels, and so on. Owing to this unique property, these smart gels constitute a new generation of materials that have been finely tuned for their use in several industries, namely, but not limited to, pharmaceuticals, tissue engineering, drug delivery, sensors, agriculture, adsorption, petroleum, etc.

To spotlight the possible advancements of smart gels and their applications in several fields, we are pleased to announce a new Special Issue on “Recent Advances in Smart Gels”. This Special Issue focuses on synthetic approaches/methods, structure–property relationships, characterization techniques, simulations, and the application of smart gels in different fields. This Special Issue serves as a pivotal point to publish high-quality research papers as well as comprehensive review articles covering novel and state-of-the-art topics associated with smart gels from theoretical and experimental perspectives.

Both reviews and original contributions are welcome.

Dr. Sunita Ranote
Dr. Marta Musioł
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2100 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.