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Smart Polymer Sensors: Fabrication, Characterization and Applications

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Keywords
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A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2024) | Viewed by 3519

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Hongwei Ma

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Guest Editor

College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Resource Utilization, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Interests: fluorescence sensors; TNT; nerve agents; VOCs; heavy metal ion

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The polymer has the characteristics of physical properties and chemical properties that can be customized according to different needs. Thus, researchers show a great interest in using the polymer as smart sensors. In the past few years, polymer smart sensors have been developed and used in biomedicine, sports and military fields. Because polymer smart sensors can replace biological or large machines in a harsh environment, they have received high attention and rapid development in environmental monitoring, human health monitoring and food safety. The development and application of polymer smart sensors require the integration of multiple disciplines, such as: chemistry, physics, medicine, and mathematical modeling. The integration of a variety of disciplines to promote the in-depth development of the research of polymer intelligent sensors, which will bring profound changes to our design materials and smart sensing devices.

Therefore, theoretical submissions linked to them in chemistry, physics, medicine and mathematical modelling, as well as original submissions and comprehensive reviews for the development and performance enhancement of polymer-based smart sensors are all welcomed.

Prof. Dr. Hongwei Ma
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. Polymers 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 2700 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

synthetic methods
synthesis, chemistry, and analysis
theory and simulation
design of sensors
array polymer sensors
polymer sensors for gas
polymer sensors for heavy metal ion
polymer sensors for piezoelectric
polymer sensors for temperature
polymer sensors for humidity

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 5653 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Giant Response and Selectivity of Hansen Solubility Parameters-Based Graphene-SBS Co-Polymer Matrix Composite Room Temperature Sensor to Organic Vapours

by Rostislav Slobodian, Robert Olejnik, David John Dmonte, Jakub Sevcik, Jiri Matyas, Marek Jurca, R. Blessy Pricilla, Barbora Hanulikova, Petr Slobodian and Ivo Kuritka

Polymers 2024, 16(3), 309; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym16030309 - 23 Jan 2024

Viewed by 786

Abstract

A styrene-butadiene-styrene co-polymer matrix nanocomposite filled with graphene nanoplatelets was studied to prepare chemiresistive volatile organic compounds (VOCs) room temperature sensors with considerable response and selectivity. Nanofiller concentration was estimated from the electrical conductivity percolation behaviour of the nanocomposite. Fabricated sensors provided selective relative responses to representative VOCs differing by orders of magnitude. Maximum observed average relative responses upon exposure to saturated vapours of the tested VOCs were ca. 23% for ethanol, 1600% for acetone, and the giant values were 9 × 10⁶% for n-heptane and 10 × 10⁶% for toluene. The insensitivity of the sensor to the direct saturated water vapour exposure was verified. Although high humidity decreases the sensor’s response, it paradoxically enhances the resolution between hydrocarbons and polar organics. The non-trivial sensing mechanism is explained using the Hansen solubility parameters (HSP), enabling a rational design of new sensors; thus, the HSP-based class of sensors is outlined. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Polymer Sensors: Fabrication, Characterization and Applications)

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13 pages, 4458 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Conjugated Microporous Polymer/Wood Aerogel with Physical Adsorption, Chemical Degradation and Antibacterial Self-Cleaning Triple Sewage Treatment Functions

by Fanwei Kong, Junkang Ge, Zihao Zhu, Chunxia Chen, Jinsong Peng, Xiaobai Li, Bin Li and Hongwei Ma

Polymers 2023, 15(19), 3929; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15193929 - 28 Sep 2023

Viewed by 1012

Abstract

Conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) have important applications in the fields of optoelectronics and sewage treatment due to their high specific surface area, broad visible absorption, processability and simple synthesis process. Biocompatibility, recycling, mass production and solar photodegradation are particularly important in wastewater treatment. Here, A CMP with a high specific surface area and a hierarchical pore structure (CPOP) was constructed based on 4,4′,4″-Tris(carbazol-9-yl)-triphenylamine (3CZ-TPA). Furthermore, a CMP-loaded wood aerogel (CPOP/wood aerogel) with physical adsorption, chemical degradation, bacterial inhibition and self-cleaning properties was prepared by in situ polymerization and used for wastewater treatment. The obtained CPOP/wood aerogel is highly biocompatible and easy to recycle. In addition, the inherent broad visible light absorption property of CPOP endows it with promising photocatalytic properties. Subsequently, we investigated the photocatalytic mechanism of CPOP, and the results showed that it was mainly affected by peroxyl radicals, which implied and confirmed its microbial self-cleaning for secondary cleaning of water pollutants. The reported studies on CPOP/wood aerogel provide a new direction for water purification materials with excellent adsorption, degradation and antibacterial properties. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Polymer Sensors: Fabrication, Characterization and Applications)

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Review

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17 pages, 6985 KiB

Open AccessReview

Research Progress and Prospect of Stimuli-Responsive Lignin Functional Materials

by Xiaobai Li, Yunhui Meng, Zhiyong Cheng and Bin Li

Polymers 2023, 15(16), 3372; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15163372 - 11 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1224

Abstract

As the world’s second most abundant renewable natural phenolic polymer after cellulose, lignin is an extremely complex, amorphous, highly cross-linked class of aromatic polyphenolic macromolecules. Due to its special aromatic structure, lignin is considered to be one of the most suitable candidates to replace fossil materials, thus the research on lignin functional materials has received extensive attention. Because lignin has stimuli-sensitive groups such as phenolic hydroxyl, hydroxyl, and carboxyl, the preparation of stimuli-responsive lignin-based functional materials by combining lignin with some stimuli-responsive polymers is a current research hotspot. Therefore, this article will review the research progress of stimuli-responsive lignin-based functional materials in order to guide the subsequent work. Firstly, we elaborate the source and preparation of lignin and various types of lignin pretreatment methods. We then sort out and discuss the preparation of lignin stimulus-responsive functional materials according to different stimuli (pH, light, temperature, ions, etc.). Finally, we further envision the scope and potential value of lignin stimulus-responsive functional materials for applications in actuators, optical coding, optical switches, solar photothermal converters, tissue engineering, and biomedicine. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Polymer Sensors: Fabrication, Characterization and Applications)

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