Intelligent polymers

AS Hoffman. Intelligent polymers. In K Park, ed. Controlled Drug Delivery ... 

Significant developments have occurred in recent years in the fields of biopolymers and biomaterials. New synthetic materials have been synthesized and tested for a variety of biomedical and related applications from linings for artifical hearts to artifical pancreas devices and from intraocular lenses to drug delivery systems. Of particular interest in the future is the development of intelligent polymers or materials with special functional groups that can be used either for specialty medical applications or as templates or scaffolds for tissue regeneration. 

The finding that intragranular polymer networks can undergo phase transition, and that product release in secretion might operate in a way similar to the newly developed drug release systems based on intelligent polymers, opens a... 

Lendlein A., Tailor-made intelligent polymers for biomedical applications in Tao X. (ed.) Smart Fibres, Fabrics and Clothing, Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge, 2001. 

Inherently Conducting Polymers Their Role in the Evolution of Intelligent Polymer Systems... 

Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia... 

Intelligent Polymer Systems possess the ability to sense, process information and actuate responses based on the environment to which the structure is exposed. In addition, the structure may require energy to implement these functions and so energy conversion/storage capabilities are desirable. Ideally these functions would be integrated at the molecular level. 

While a number of classes of polymers are capable of providing one or more of the above functions, only Inherently Conducting Polymers (ICPs) provide all of them. In fact, in the authors laboratory it was studies into inherently conducting polymers that led us to the concept of Intelligent Polymer Systems as reviewed recently [1,2]. 

To illustrate the ability of ICPs to provide the range of functions required for Intelligent Polymer Systems we will draw on examples that utilise polypyrroles, polythiophenes or polyanilines (I-III shown at the top of the next page). 

Hoffman A. Bioconjugates of intelligent polymers and recognition proteins for use in diagnostics and affinity separations. Clin Chem 2000 46 1478-86. 

In the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI), the unique features of CEPs were identified based on pyrrole, aniline, and thiophene. Stimuli-recognition sites can be incorporated into these CEPs, for which information-processing capabilities are inherent, and various response mechanisms can be integrated into them. 

Some information is available about the environmental effects on the mechanical properties of PPy. For most intelligent polymer systems, mechanical properties need to be stable with time in the service environment. One study has tracked the changes... 

Rapid advances in synthetic polymer science and nanotechnology have revealed new avenues of development in conductive electroactive polymers that take greater advantage of this versatile class of materials unique properties This third edition of Conductive Electroactive Polymers Intelligent Polymer Systems continues to provide an in-depth understanding of how to engineer dynamic properties in inherently conducting polymers from the molecular level. 

Conductive electroactive polymers intelligent polymer systems / Gordon G. Wallace. .. [et al.]. — 3rd ed. p. cm. 

Gordon Wallace, Ph.D., D.Sc., FTSE, is currently executive research director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. His research interests include organic conductors, nanomaterials, and electrochemical probe methods of analysis. A current focus of his involves the use of these tools and materials in developing biocommunications, from the molecular to skeletal domains, in order to improve human performance via medical bionics. 

To be environment sensitive or stimuli sensitive means that the polymer responds to relatively small changes in the environment with substantial physical or chemical changes. These polymers are also called intelligent polymers [7,9]. 

In the last two decades, the development of poljoners which change their structures and properties in response to environmental stimuli such as pH, temperature, and light has attracted a great deal of attention (1-3). Such polymers have been called smart polymers, intelligent polymers, stimulus-sensitive pol3uners, or responsive polymers. They have been used in many applications, ranging from bioactive agent delivery to separation (4,5). Various delivery systems based on the smart polymers have been proposed because of their... 

Hoffman AS. Intelligent polymers in medicine and biotechnology. Macromol Symp 1995 98 645-664. 

Intelligent Polymer Research Laboratory Department of Chemistry University of Wollongong Northfields Avenue Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia... 

The focus of the conference was on five frontier areas of polymer research (i) Polymers for photonics (ii) Pofymers for electronics (iii) High performance polymers (iv) Polymers for biotechnology and (v) Potymer blends and composites. Other topics touched on included polymer processing, multifunctional and intelligent polymers, advanced materials from natural pofymers, sol-gel processed materials, polymer surfaces... 

Development of intelligent polymer concrete system utilizing piezoelectric actuator components... 

Zrinyi, M. 2000, Intelligent polymer gels controlled by magnetic fields . Colloid Polymer Science, vol. 278, no. 2, pp. 98-103. 

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