Stimuli-Responsive Functional Gels
A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861). This special issue belongs to the section "Gel Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 196
Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Functional gels, as a significant class of smart materials, exhibit responsive behavior to diverse stimuli—including temperature, pH, solvent, ionic strength, light, and electric or magnetic fields—rendering them highly valuable for both academic research and industrial applications. For instance, self-healing hydrogels not only autonomously restore their structural integrity and mechanical properties after damage but also demonstrate excellent biocompatibility, mechanical strength, and responsiveness to environmental changes, particularly pH variations. Liquid crystal hydrogels represent another promising category of advanced functional materials, combining the ordered structure and stimulus sensitivity of liquid crystals with the flexibility and biocompatibility of hydrogels. These materials show broad potential across fields such as biomedical engineering, flexible electronics and sensing, soft robotics, and environmental and energy technologies. Meanwhile, hydrogels—known for their high water content, tunable mechanical properties, and biocompatibility—have also emerged as a promising platform for cultural heritage preservation. This Special Issue invites contributions on various types of stimulus-responsive functional gels, covering topics including but not limited to intelligent material design, synthesis strategies, performance enhancement, and exploration of application scenarios.
Dr. Ran Chen
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 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-anonymized 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.
Keywords
- functional gels
- stimuli-responsive
- liquid crystal
- cultural heritage
- water-absorbing resin
- synthesis
- actuator
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