Ionic Interfaces in Smart Polymer Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Materials sciences have a major role in meeting the current global challenges such as environmental stewardship; the production, storage, and conversion of energy; and cost-effective transportation, leading the research to design advanced polymer materials that consider both their shelf- and end-of-life. Through the concept “function through structural design”, the development of easy and new production methods is crucial for preparing innovative polymer material solutions and thus ensures a sustainable future. Consequently, in recent years, the polymer materials community has put a great deal of effort into designing innovative polymer materials that are engineered to be multifunctional or task-specific, presenting enhancement in properties such as ionic conductivity, chemical and thermal stability, mechanical performance, fire retardancy, barrier properties, self-healing ability, and shape memory behavior. This can be effectively achieved by altering the interphase behavior of these polymer systems, both via chemical modification or incorporating additives/fillers such as block copolymers, ionomers, organic–inorganic hybrid materials, or inorganic-rich nano-objects. Among these, the application of (poly)ionic liquids, eutectic solvents, and eutectic molecular liquids have presented many new opportunities within the last decade, since small amounts of these compounds can impart dramatic interphase modifications to polymer materials due the production of vast physical interphase bonding, including the formation of ionic bonding. Especially considering their unique set of physico-chemical properties as well as their multitude of chemical structures, they represent a promising new path to designing and creating new multifunctional and task-specific polymeric materials.

Prof. Dr. Sébastien Livi
Dr. Ricardo Keitel Donato
Dr. Hynek Beneš
Guest Editors

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