scholarly journals Mixed Polymer Brushes for “Smart” Surfaces

Polymers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingxiao Li ◽  
Christian W. Pester

Mixed polymer brushes (MPBs) are composed of two or more disparate polymers covalently tethered to a substrate. The resulting phase segregated morphologies have been extensively studied as responsive “smart” materials, as they can be reversible tuned and switched by external stimuli. Both computational and experimental work has attempted to establish an understanding of the resulting nanostructures that vary as a function of many factors. This contribution highlights state-of-the-art MPBs studies, covering synthetic approaches, phase behavior, responsiveness to external stimuli as well as novel applications of MPBs. Current limitations are recognized and possible directions for future studies are identified.

RSC Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (43) ◽  
pp. 36623-36641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Guo ◽  
Zhiguang Guo

Recent progress in smart surfaces with responsive wettability upon external stimuli is reviewed and some of the barriers and potentially promising breakthroughs in this field are also briefly discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Wang ◽  
Yiyang Wan ◽  
Xiaowei Wang ◽  
Zhenhai Xia

Living organisms have evolved, over billions of years, to develop specialized biostructures with switchable adhesion for various purposes including climbing, perching, preying, sensing, and protecting. According to adhesion mechanisms, switchable adhesives can be divided into four categories: mechanically-based adhesion, liquid-mediated adhesion, physically-actuated adhesion and chemically-enhanced adhesion. Mimicking these biostructures could create smart materials with switchable adhesion, appealing for many engineering applications in robotics, sensors, advanced drug-delivery, protein separation, etc. Progress has been made in developing bioinspired materials with switchable adhesion modulated by external stimuli such as electrical signal, magnetic field, light, temperature, pH value, etc. This review will be focused on new advance in biomimetic design and synthesis of the materials and devices with switchable adhesion. The underlying mechanisms, design principles, and future directions are discussed for the development of high-performance smart surfaces with switchable adhesion.


Pramana ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-640 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Sreekumaran Nair ◽  
Chandramouli Subramaniam ◽  
M. J. Rosemary ◽  
Renjis T. Tom ◽  
V. R. Rajeev Kumar ◽  
...  

1993 ◽  
Vol 1 (1_2) ◽  
pp. 39-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Schuster

Molecular evolution provides an ample field for the extension of Nature's principles towards novel applications. Several examples are discussed here, among them are evolution in the test tube, nucleotide chemistry with new base pairs and new backbones, enzyme-free replication of polynucleotides and template chemistry aiming at replicating structures that have nothing in common with the molecules from nature. Molecular evolution in the test tube provides a uniquely simple system for the study of evolutionary phenomena: genotype and phenotype are two features of one and the same RNA molecule. Then fitness landscapes are nothing more than combined mappings from sequences to structures and from structures to functions, the latter being expressed in terms of rate constants. RNA landscapes are presented as examples for which an access to phenomena in reality by mathematical analysis and computer simulations is feasible. New questions concerning stability of structures in evolution can be raised and quantitative answers are given. Evolutionary biotechnology is a spin-off from molecular evolution. Darwin's principle of variation and selection is applied to design novel biopolymers with predetermined functions. Different approaches to achieve this goal are discussed and a survey of the current state of the art is given.


Photonics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 389
Author(s):  
M. Fátima Domingues ◽  
Nélia Alberto ◽  
Paulo André

The collection of papers presented in this Special Issue (SI) portraits the state-of-the-art of photonic-based interferometric sensors, where new application areas were explored (such as spirometry) and novel sensitivity limits were achieved, using innovative sensing techniques for the monitoring of parameters, such as displacement, temperature or salinity.


1980 ◽  
Vol 102 (3) ◽  
pp. 738-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Adler

Recent developments in internal viscous aerodynamics of centrifugal impellers and related flows are critically reviewed. The overall picture which emerges provides the reader with a state-of-the-art perspective on the subject. Gaps in understanding are identified to stimulate future research. Topics included in this review are: experimental work carried out in the last decade, the structure of turbulence in curved rotating passages and solution of viscous flow problems in impellers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Francesco Lombardi ◽  
Simone Marinai

Nowadays, deep learning methods are employed in a broad range of research fields. The analysis and recognition of historical documents, as we survey in this work, is not an exception. Our study analyzes the papers published in the last few years on this topic from different perspectives: we first provide a pragmatic definition of historical documents from the point of view of the research in the area, then we look at the various sub-tasks addressed in this research. Guided by these tasks, we go through the different input-output relations that are expected from the used deep learning approaches and therefore we accordingly describe the most used models. We also discuss research datasets published in the field and their applications. This analysis shows that the latest research is a leap forward since it is not the simple use of recently proposed algorithms to previous problems, but novel tasks and novel applications of state of the art methods are now considered. Rather than just providing a conclusive picture of the current research in the topic we lastly suggest some potential future trends that can represent a stimulus for innovative research directions.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 2957
Author(s):  
Alina Osypova ◽  
Matthias Dübner ◽  
Guido Panzarasa

Chemo-mechanical phenomena, including oscillations and peristaltic motions, are widespread in nature—just think of heartbeats—thanks to the ability of living organisms to convert directly chemical energy into mechanical work. Their imitation with artificial systems is still an open challenge. Chemical clocks and oscillators (such as the popular Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction) are reaction networks characterized by the emergence of peculiar spatiotemporal dynamics. Their application to polymers at interfaces (grafted chains, layer-by-layer assemblies, and polymer brushes) offers great opportunities for developing novel smart biomimetic materials. Despite the wide field of potential applications, limited research has been carried out so far. Here, we aim to showcase the state-of-the-art of this fascinating field of investigation, highlighting the potential for future developments and providing a personal outlook.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (13) ◽  
pp. 3730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengcheng Jiao ◽  
King-James I. Egbe ◽  
Yiwei Xie ◽  
Ali Matin Nazar ◽  
Amir H. Alavi

Recently, there has been a growing interest in deploying smart materials as sensing components of structural health monitoring systems. In this arena, piezoelectric materials offer great promise for researchers to rapidly expand their many potential applications. The main goal of this study is to review the state-of-the-art piezoelectric-based sensing techniques that are currently used in the structural health monitoring area. These techniques range from piezoelectric electromechanical impedance and ultrasonic Lamb wave methods to a class of cutting-edge self-powered sensing systems. We present the principle of the piezoelectric effect and the underlying mechanisms used by the piezoelectric sensing methods to detect the structural response. Furthermore, the pros and cons of the current methodologies are discussed. In the end, we envision a role of the piezoelectric-based techniques in developing the next-generation self-monitoring and self-powering health monitoring systems.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyedjamal Zolhavarieh ◽  
Saeed Aghabozorgi ◽  
Ying Wah Teh

Clustering of subsequence time series remains an open issue in time series clustering. Subsequence time series clustering is used in different fields, such as e-commerce, outlier detection, speech recognition, biological systems, DNA recognition, and text mining. One of the useful fields in the domain of subsequence time series clustering is pattern recognition. To improve this field, a sequence of time series data is used. This paper reviews some definitions and backgrounds related to subsequence time series clustering. The categorization of the literature reviews is divided into three groups: preproof, interproof, and postproof period. Moreover, various state-of-the-art approaches in performing subsequence time series clustering are discussed under each of the following categories. The strengths and weaknesses of the employed methods are evaluated as potential issues for future studies.


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