Functional Transformations in Polymer Gels

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to invite your contributions to a Special Issue on “Functional Transformations in Polymer Gels” in the journal Gels.

Gels are astoundingly versatile. In these materials, a polymer network swollen by a solvent creates a micro- or nano-porous environment capable of hosting solution-phase chemistry, diffusive or migratory transport, and viscous dissipation while maintaining the ability to hold a shape and exert elastic restoring forces. As gels’ material properties emerge from their several mutually interacting components, they are highly tunable in almost every respect, and transformations can be achieved in a variety of qualitatively distinct ways. Inducing physical or chemical changes in the polymer, solvent, solute, molecular interactions, external fields, or network architecture of a gel can produce volume transitions, shape morphing, porosity tuning, network rearrangement, chemical reactions, electrical activity, shifts in optical properties, and other effects during fabrication or deployment. Polymer gels’ tunability and potential for dynamic behavior have led to extensive fundamental research and the development of many applications, including as soft robotic actuators and sensors, cell culture scaffolds, battery electrolytes, components of ionotronic circuits, bioelectronics for stimulation and recording, human–machine interfaces, rheology modifiers, permeation and separation media, optical lenses, photonic sensors, energy harvesting and storage devices, and more.

This Special Issue will collect original research articles and reviews discussing the theory, fabrication, characterization, and deployment of polymer gels that undergo functional transformations during their fabrication or over the course of their use. Submissions may discuss gels composed of polymer networks and solvents of all types. We welcome submissions from all fields, including materials science, engineering, chemistry, biology, medicine, energy, robotics, electronics, optics, and mechanics.

Dr. Thomas B. H. Schroeder
Prof. Dr. Ximin He
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.