Dear Colleagues,

We are inviting submissions of original research articles and reviews for a Special Issue of Sustainability entitled ‘Sustainable Materials Based on Responsive and Smart Polymers’.

Polymers that can actively respond to external stimuli, such as pH, light, enzymes, temperature, electromagnetic fields, and mechanical stresses, are of great interest in a broad range of fields, from agriculture to energy conversion and storage. However, the currently used responsive materials are mostly petroleum-based and diverge from a sustainable future premise. Therefore, there is an urgent need to do the following:

1. Develop new smart and functional materials from sustainable resources or processes.
2. Modify existing non-responsive (passive) materials to actively respond to external stimuli for better performance.

In this Special Issue, our aim is to bring together theoretical and experimental studies on polymer science whose primary objective is to guide material design via insights into smart and responsive soft materials necessary for future applications both within and outside academia, such as in energy storage, agriculture, controlled release, structural materials, biomaterials, additive manufacturing, water harvesting, membranes, wearable electronics, etc.

Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Stimuli-responsive (bio)polymers and nanocomposites;
• Responsive hydrogels from sustainable resources;
• Smart superabsorbent hydrogels;
• Smart polymer electrolytes for batteries and fuel cells;
• Mechanically responsive polymers and nanocomposites;
• Smart polymer membranes for water filtration and gas separation;
• Polymers for atmospheric water harvesting;
• Smart lignocellulosic nanomaterials;
• Recycling and upcycling of polymers;
• Green processes for sustainable polymer production.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Sincerely,

Dr. Erkan Senses
Dr. Tadanori Koga
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 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. Sustainability 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 2400 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.

• polymer physics
• polymer chemistry
• responsive materials
• smart nanocomposites
• responsive hydrogels
• sustainable polymers
• responsive biopolymers
• supramolecular polymers