CHINESE JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE
·
2025
·
IF 4
Liu Chang-Yue,Wang Zi-Xuan,Li Tian-Yu,Yang Ji-Ping,Wang Zhi-Jian
Bioinspired active pillar structures, known for their large surface area, mechanical compliance, and diverse deformation modes, have garnered extensive research interest. Among various active pillar structures, liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) pillar arrays are capable of exhibiting significant and reversible anisotropic deformation under cyclic heating and cooling, showing great potential in tunable adhesion, soft robots, and biomedical devices. However, scaling up LCE pillar manufacturing remains challenging, limiting its practical applications. In this work, a solvent-free LCE resin is developed with unique features including simple operating procedure, short fabrication time, and tunable responsive temperature, enabling rapid and large-scale production of LCE pillar arrays. The LCE resin allows for the preparation of complex 3D shapes in addition to film or specimen. The fabrication time can be as short as 4 h, without the need to evaporate solvent. Moreover, the LCE resins can be adjusted with a variable phase transition temperature range from 49.4 °C to 97.7 °C by incorporating non-liquid crystal acrylate chains. The resulting active pillar array structure can undertake sequential actuation upon heating with the tunable actuation temperature. Finally, the application of these pillar arrays in multi-level information encryption is demonstrated. The LCE pillar structure introduced here offers a new strategy for constructing advanced active LCE structures with tunable responsive behavior.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
生物医学工程
·
软体机器人
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Materials Horizons
·
2023
·Vol. 10
·期 7
·2464-2475
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IF 13.3
Dequan Chi,Haoyu Gu,Jingfeng Wang,Chao Wu,Ruijie Wang,Zhongjun Cheng,Dongjie Zhang,Zhimin Xie,Yuyan Liu
Complex and controlled reversible actuation inevitably relies on changing thermal fields (direct or indirect) for semi-crystalline reversible shape memory networks. Unfortunately, the non-tunability of thermal signals often brings potential limitations to actuators’ applications. In practice, a wide response temperature range (T-range) formed by Thigh and Tlow in the remarkable reversible actuation is an obvious fact. Herein, we demonstrate the tunability of the transition temperatures while stably maintaining excellent actuation abilities. We further verified that the narrow T-range (24 °C) that had not been reported could present more than 17% reversible strain. Special parameter optimization provides opportunities for potential non-implantable biomedical applications. Therefore, based on target 2W-SMP, a vehicle concept with the drug release and vehicle recovery ability was proposed, proving our approach's feasibility.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
生物医学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
MACROMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
·
2023
·
IF 2.5
Yuzhu Chen,Xingdi Li,Chao Zheng
Thermoresponsive microgels are a kind of soft and wet material exhibiting various potential applications such as smart windows. As a concept of proof, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) based thermoresponsive microgel shows excellent promise in thermochoromic smart windows. While relatively expensive monomers lead to an unacceptable cost when they are used as building materials. In this work, efforts are made to exploration of an alternative for poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) reducing the cost of thermoresponsive microgels. For this purpose, industrial chemicals acrylamide (AM) and diacetone acrylamide (DAAM) are employed to synthesize microgels through free radical precipitation polymerization. Although both homopolymers of acrylamide and diacetone acrylamide are not thermoresponsive. Their copolymers exhibit typical lower solution temperature solution (LCST) behaviors, which confirm the feasibility of the envisaged. Further, the influence of synthetic conditions including monomer ratio, concentration of surfactant, and polymerization temperature, on the size and responsive temperature of microgels is investigated. Ultimately, cost-effective thermoresponsive microgels are prepared with adjustable diameters from 1.6 to 4.5 µm and responsive temperature from 19.3 to ≈70.0 °C.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
高分子化学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
·
2018
·
IF 8.097
Ran Wei,Fan Yang,Ruixue Gu,Qian Liu,Jukai Zhou,Xiang Zhang,Weifeng Zhao,Changsheng Zhao
In this study, poly(ionic liquids/N-isopropylacrylamide) (PIL/NIPAM) modified poly(ether sulfone) microporous membranes were prepared using a pore-filling method. Due to the anion-sensitive wettability of the PIL and the thermal-sensitive phase transformation of PNIPAM, the permeability of the modified membranes showed robust anion and thermal dual-responsive behaviors. In addition, the response temperature of the membranes could be adjusted precisely from 30 to 55 °C by anion exchange, which was attributed to the cooperative interaction of the PIL and PNIPAM. The switchable response temperature and the dual-responsive performances of the membranes were demonstrated by measuring the water fluxes under various conditions. The results indicated that the membrane permeabilities increased when exchanging the counteranions (CAs) from hydrophilic to hydrophobic ones; the thermal response behaviors were also obvious, and the sensitivity increased when increasing the hydrophobicity of the CA (the fluxes could be adjusted from 0 to 3800 mL/m2 mmHgh by controlling the temperature and CAs). At last, filtration tests were designed with the membranes, and the results indicated that by controlling the temperature and/or CA species, three different poly(ethylene glycol) molecules could be easily separated according to their molecule sizes in a single step.
研究领域:
材料科学
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化学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
·
2024
·Vol. 34
·期 33
·2400245
·
IF 18.5
Wenzhe Zhang,Chenglong Zou,Qizhu Pan,Guixin Hu,Huihong Shi,Yi Zhang,Xiyang He,Yiheng He,Xiucheng Zhang
Body-temperature responsive shape memory polymers (SMPs) attract a lot of attention with the application in biomedicine. Multiple SMPs regulate the response temperature through the proportion of their stationary and reversible phases by changing the molecular weight of the polymer or the components of the composite. Herein, a crosslinking reaction of trans-polyisoprene (TPI) and polycaprolactone (PCL) initiated by benzoyl peroxide gave a SMP of TPI/PCL, whose shape memory property is realized by stage-division crystallization zone. Under the fixed ratio of TPI:PCL, the crystallization performance of TPI/PCL is controlled by the crosslinking density. The response temperatures of the components in TPI/PCL are selected for the stage-division crystallization zone, making excellent shape memory performance at corresponding response temperatures. For the further achievement in controllable response temperature within a certain range, the relationship model between crosslinking density and response temperature is established, obtaining the customizable response temperature ranging 37–55 °C. The presented facile regulation method for response temperature will provide a new idea for the SMPs development.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
生物医学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
·
2024
·
IF 18.5
Zhi-Guang Guo,Peng-Qi Xiong,Hai-Feng Nan,Ding-Xiang Yan,Gan-Ji Zhong,Jun Lei,Zhong-Ming Li
Thermochromic hydrogel-based smart windows hold great potential for building energy-saving. However, most of thermochromic hydrogels possess high response temperatures (RT) and poor size stability under heat, resulting in limited energy-saving performance for smart windows. Here, a printable thermochromic gel (PNC) is reported with low thermal shrinkage and tunable RT for smart windows applications via molecular confinement engineering. The RT of PNC gel is well within the comfort temperature zone of the human body and can be modulated (26.5–31.5 °C) by the introduced support networks. Importantly, the resultant gel exhibits a super transmittance (95%) in visible light and an outstanding modulation (87%) for sunlight. Based on PNC gel, a tri-heat-channeled smart window is fabricated using a multilevel thermal regulation strategy that couples conduction, radiation, and evaporative cooling. The tri-heat-channeled smart window demonstrates outstanding daytime cooling (10 °C lower than conventional windows) and can cut off 30% of annual heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HAVC) energy consumption. Furthermore, a novel smart window is designed with invisible shutters that appear only when needed. This work offers novel clues for constructing versatile gels and innovative smart windows for building energy-saving.
研究领域:
材料科学
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能源工程
·
建筑节能
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Gels
·
2024
·
IF 5
Meng Sun,Hui Sun,Ruoyu Wei,Wenqing Li,Jinlai Lai,Ye Tian,Miao Li
Thermochromic smart windows realize an intelligent response to changes in environmental temperature through reversible physical phase transitions. They complete a real-time adjustment of solar transmittance, create a livable indoor temperature for humans, and reduce the energy consumption of buildings. Nevertheless, conventional materials that are used to prepare thermochromic smart windows face challenges, including fixed transition temperatures, limited solar modulation capabilities, and inadequate mechanical properties. In this study, a novel thermochromic hydrogel was synthesized from 2-hydroxy-3-butoxypropyl hydroxyethyl celluloses (HBPEC) and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) by using a simple one-step low-temperature polymerization method. The HBPEC/PNIPAM hydrogel demonstrates a wide response temperature (24.1–33.2 °C), high light transmittance ( T lum = 87.5%), excellent solar modulation (Δ T sol = 71.2%), and robust mechanical properties. HBPEC is a functional material that can be used to adjust the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the smart window over a wide range by changing the degree of substitution (DS) of the butoxy group in its structure. In addition, the use of HBPEC effectively improves the light transmittance and mechanical properties of the hydrogels. After 100 heating and cooling cycles, the hydrogel still has excellent stability. Furthermore, indoor simulation experiments show that HBPEC/PNIPAM hydrogel smart windows have better indoor temperature regulation capabilities than traditional windows, making these smart windows potential candidates for energy-saving building materials.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
能源工程
·
建筑技术
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
·
2021
·Vol. 32
·期 5
·2109597
·
IF 18.808
Gang Xu,Huan Xia,Pengyu Chen,Wei She,Hanning Zhang,Jing Ma,Qiushi Ruan,Wei Zhang,ZhengMing Sun
Conventional buildings consume about 40% of global energy, smart window technologies have been developed for sunlight modulation and energy management. Most current smart windows change from transparent to opaque as the temperature rises, which is detrimental to indoor lighting at daytime or privacy protection at night. In this work, a versatile thermochromic hydrogel system by introducing sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micelles into a crosslinked copolymer of hydrophilic acrylamide and hydrophobic stearyl methacrylate (C 18 ) is developed. The liquid precursor solution can be encapsulated within two glass panels and in situ gelated to prepared smart windows, which showed excellent solar modulation ability ( T lum = 99.05%, D T solar = 33.42%), dual responsiveness (thermal and pH) and tunable phase transition temperature (20–50 °C). Moreover, this design selectively blocks infrared light, while allowing ultraviolet and visible light through at daytime, which is beneficial for indoor illumination and heat insulation. When temperature drops at night, C 18 units aggregate within SDS micelles to increase their dimensions, causing enhanced light blocking properties (opaque) to protect the customers’ privacy. The as-prepared hydrogel-based smart windows present a facile strategy to meet the stringent requirements of high transparency, excellent solar modulation ability, easy to fabricate and mechanical flexibility, holding great promise for the next-generation energy-saving buildings.
研究领域:
材料科学
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能源工程
·
环境科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF POLYMER RESEARCH
·
2015
·Vol. 22
·期 9
·1-8
·
IF 1.92
Zhou Mi,Ye Xiaofeng,Liu Kaiyue,Hu Jingying,Qian Xin
During the past decade, a series of thermo-responsive hydrogels based on poly( N -isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) were prepared for drug delivery. However, the release performance of those hydrogels was limited because the LCST (lower critical solution temperature) of PNIPAM (about 32 °C) is slightly lower than human body temperature, and the drug loading is complicated. To develop a new drug delivery matrix with the suitable responsive interval, a novel, temperature-sensitive copolymer with two monomers, N -isopropylacrylamide and methylacrylic polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether ester (MPEGMA) [poly(NIPAM- co -MPEGMA)], was synthesized by free radical polymerization. Then, the supramolecular hydrogels with tunable response temperature, whose structures were confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), were fabricated via inclusion complexation with α-cyclodextrin (α-CD) and the copolymers in aqueous solution. The rheology results indicated that response interval could be modulated by controlling the contents of PNIPAM in the copolymers. Compared to the normal PNIPAM ge1, the succinct method of gel preparation streamlined the process of loading and made the drug loading capacity controllable. The release time was proved to be prolonged by the release kinetics of 5-fluoroucrail (5-Fu), which showed feasibility as a drug delivery.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
药学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）