Reflexive Polymers and Hydrogels Understanding and Designing Fast Responsive Polymeric Systems

. Despite their capacity to carry out functions that previously were unobtainable, smart polymers and hydrogels tend to have painfully slow response times. On the other hand biological systems go through phase changes at an extremely fast rate. Reflexive Polymers and Hydrogels examines the natural systems that respond almost instantaneously to environmental stimuli, and thus gives the reader an understanding of the mechanisms that govern these responses. The book includes chapters on approaches and procedures for designing a synthetic ...flash... system based on naturally occurring systems. It also deals with some of the promising potential applications of flash systems in industry.

Examining several natural systems that respond rapidly to environmental stimuli, this book provides an understanding of the mechanisms that govern these responses. It considers limitations of reflexive systems, by investigating model systems where selected interactions of specific components are evaluated to determine theoretical limits of response rates and cycle time. The text characterizes the status of artificially prepared materials that could have both thermodynamic and kinetic response events and explores potential future applications of such systems. It includes chapters on how to design synthetic reflexive systems and discusses potential applications in biomedical and pharmaceutical areas.

Yui, Nobuhiko; Mrsny, Randall J.; Park, Kinam