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Polymers
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Smart Polymers and Their Applications
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Smart Polymers and Their Applications

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 April 2022) | Viewed by 12799

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Jibran Khaliq

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK
Interests: dielectrics; piezoelectrics; smart plastics; low-temperature synthesis of ceramics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Smart Polymers are a hugely popular and innovative branch of smart materials due to their unique and highly adaptive properties. In comparison to ceramic and metallic-based smart materials, these materials possess the added functionality of being flexible, which presents exciting and innovative areas of scientific research and ingenious future applications. Although smart polymers already present numerous advantages, there are still numerous opportunities in the compositional design, synthesis, blending, and engineering of smart polymeric systems. This Special Issue on “Smart Polymers and Their Applications’’ endeavors to provide an opportunity for a comprehensive collection of the latest advances and novel works on experimental as well as simulation- and modeling-based works, development of synthetic approaches, structure–property correlations and their mechanism, and the current and emerging applications of smart and functional polymers The issue covers smart and functional polymers for a diverse range of applications, involving synthetic chemistry, materials science, and biomedical technology.

Dr. Jibran Khaliq
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

  • polymerization or post-polymerization modification methods
  • stimuli-responsive polymers
  • shape memory polymers
  • self-healing polymers
  • polymers for industrial catalysis
  • polymers for water or effluent treatment
  • polymers for sensing, separation, and purification
  • polymers for fabrication
  • renewable polymer materials used for agriculture
  • functional polymers used in food science
  • polymers for information storage
  • electronics and energy conversion
  • polymer composites: piezoelectric, ferroelectric, thermoelectric polymer, their blends and composites

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 3851 KiB  
Communication
In Situ Printing and Functionalization of Hybrid Polymer-Ceramic Composites Using a Commercial 3D Printer and Dielectrophoresis—A Novel Conceptual Design
by Georgios Tselikos, Shahid Rasul, Pim Groen, Chunchun Li and Jibran Khaliq
Polymers 2021, 13(22), 3979; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13223979 - 17 Nov 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2814
Abstract
Three-dimensional printing-based additive manufacturing has emerged as a new frontier in materials science, with applications in the production of functionalized polymeric-based hybrid composites for various applications. In this work, a novel conceptual design was conceived in which an AC electric field was integrated [...] Read more.
Three-dimensional printing-based additive manufacturing has emerged as a new frontier in materials science, with applications in the production of functionalized polymeric-based hybrid composites for various applications. In this work, a novel conceptual design was conceived in which an AC electric field was integrated into a commercial 3D printer (-based fused filament fabrication (FFF) working principle) to in situ manufacture hybrid composites having aligned ceramic filler particles. For this work, the thermoplastic poly lactic acid (PLA) was used as a polymer matrix while 10 vol% KNLN (K0.485Na0.485Li0.03NbO3) ceramic particles were chosen as a filler material. The degree of alignment of the ceramic powders depended upon print speed, printing temperature and distance between electrodes. At 210 °C and a 1 kV/mm applied electric field, printed samples showed nearly complete alignment of ceramic particles in the PLA matrix. This research shows that incorporating electric field sources into 3D printing processes would result in in situ ceramic particle alignment while preserving the other benefits of 3D printing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Polymers and Their Applications)
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Graphical abstract

12 pages, 3092 KiB  
Article
Hydraulically Coupled Dielectric Elastomer Actuators for a Bioinspired Suction Cup
by Chi Zhang, Lei Liu, Kanghui Xu, Zhonghong Dong, Yuxi Ding, Qi Li and Pengfei Li
Polymers 2021, 13(20), 3481; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13203481 - 11 Oct 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4147
Abstract
Suction cups of cephalopods show a preeminent performance when absorbing irregular or flat objects. In this paper, an octopi-inspired suction cup, driven by hydraulically coupled dielectric elastomer actuators (HCDEAs), is proposed, which is considered to be controlled easily and have compact structure. To [...] Read more.
Suction cups of cephalopods show a preeminent performance when absorbing irregular or flat objects. In this paper, an octopi-inspired suction cup, driven by hydraulically coupled dielectric elastomer actuators (HCDEAs), is proposed, which is considered to be controlled easily and have compact structure. To investigate the performance of suction cups, experiments have been conducted to clarify the effect of the pre-stretch ratio and chamber angle on suction forces. It could be seen that both factors have a complicated influence on suction forces, and the best performance obtained was a reasonable combination of the pre-stretch ratio and chamber angle. Here, we achieved a maximum suction force of 175 mN with λp = 1.2, α = 23° under a DC voltage of 3500 V. To enhance the capacity and adaptation of the suction cup, flat objects of various types of materials were introduced as targets. Experimental results displayed that for tested materials, including a dry/wet acrylic plate, CD, ceramic wafer, and aluminum plate, the suction cup showed outstanding performance of absorbing and lifting the target without any damage or scratch to them. Our research may serve as a guide to the optimal design and provide insights into the performance of the HCDEAs-actuated suction cup. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Polymers and Their Applications)
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Graphical abstract

17 pages, 3733 KiB  
Article
Acetone Vapor-Sensing Properties of Chitosan-Polyethylene Glycol Using Surface Plasmon Resonance Technique
by Fahad Usman, John Ojur Dennis, E. M. Mkawi, Yas Al-Hadeethi, Fabrice Meriaudeau, Yap Wing Fen, Amir Reza Sadrolhosseini, Thomas L. Ferrell, Ahmed Alsadig and Abdelmoneim Sulieman
Polymers 2020, 12(11), 2586; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12112586 - 4 Nov 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3939
Abstract
To non-invasively monitor and screen for diabetes in patients, there is need to detect low concentration of acetone vapor in the range from 1.8 ppm to 5 ppm, which is the concentration range of acetone vapor in diabetic patients. This work presents an [...] Read more.
To non-invasively monitor and screen for diabetes in patients, there is need to detect low concentration of acetone vapor in the range from 1.8 ppm to 5 ppm, which is the concentration range of acetone vapor in diabetic patients. This work presents an investigation for the utilization of chitosan-polyethylene glycol (PEG)-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor in the detection of trace concentration acetone vapor in the range of breath acetone in diabetic subjects. The structure, morphology, and elemental composition of the chitosan-PEG sensing layer were characterized using FTIR, UV-VIS, FESEM, EDX, AFM, and XPS methods. Response testing was conducted using low concentration of acetone vapor in the range of 0.5 ppm to 5 ppm using SPR technique. All the measurements were conducted at room temperature and 50 mL/min gas flow rate. The sensor showed good sensitivity, linearity, repeatability, reversibility, stability, and high affinity toward acetone vapor. The sensor also showed better selectivity to acetone compared to methanol, ethanol, and propanol vapors. More importantly, the lowest detection limit (LOD) of about 0.96 ppb confirmed the applicability of the sensor for the non-invasive monitoring and screening of diabetes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Polymers and Their Applications)
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