This book focuses on designing stimuli-responsive materials by mimicking nature—an excellent source of inspiration for conceiving new products with tailored properties and desired functions. The book is structured into 12 chapters and covers a wide range of topics, from controlled synthesis of polymers to various aspects of stimuli responsiveness in macromolecular blocks, polymer brushes, surfaces, and interfaces, to nano- and micro-materials, and photochromic and photorefractive polymers.
The common essence of these stimuli-responsive materials resides in their heterogeneity at the nanoscale—the origin of energy excess able to be converted into other energy forms as a result of various external stimuli: temperature, solvent polarity, pH, ultraviolet/visible light, electrical potential, magnetic field, or combinations of these.
Starting from biologically responsive polymers, special attention is paid to stimuli-responsive materials applied in medical therapy, nanomedicine, enhancing imaging and target delivery, and self-healing and shape-memory materials, with a perspective for these materials to shape the future of human existence.
Most of the illustrations are appropriate and enable a deeper understanding of the scientific arguments.
Chapters are on topics such as tissue engineering, microfluidics, biosensors, molecular electronics, and photochromic devices. Each chapter starts with short definitions of terms or phenomena and provides clear explanations based on physicochemical proofs, combining structural characteristics given by molecular interactions with adequate thermodynamic and kinetics approaches. Each chapter ends with a reference list. The book is accessible to senior undergraduate and graduate students in materials chemistry and physics. At the same time, this monograph is also useful for specialists in materials science and engineering, providing stimulating ideas for further advances in materials design mostly needed in nanofabrication.
Reviewer: Aurelia Meghea is Emeritus Professor at the University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania.
