Self-oscillating gels, mechanism

To construct an autonomous mechanical pumping system such as intestines, we fabricated a self-oscillating gel in a tubular shape by photopolymerization (Fig. 5.1.4) [50]. Several types of tubular self-oscillating gels that exhibit autonomous peristaltic motion were... 

Yoshida, R. Tanaka, M. Onodera, S. Yamaguchi, T Kokufuta, E. In-phase synchronization of chemical and mechanical oscillations in self-oscillating gels. J. Phys. Chem. A 2000,104, 7549 7555. 

Kuksenok et al. in Chapter 8 consider self-oscillating gels as biomimetic soft materials. They have modeled systems that exhibit irritability, the ability to sense and respond to a potentially harmful stimulus. Specifically, they have modeled materials based on Yoshida s BZ gel systems that could emit a chemical alarm signal and directed motion in response to a mechanical deformation or impact. This could be a significant step to biomimetic materials with important applications. 

The effects of mechanical deformation on the chemical reaction have been discussed for self-oscillating gels[198, 199]. The polymer network in the self-oscillating gel takes part in the BZ reaction, when immersed in an aqueous solution containing the reactants. It is because the catalyst is covalently bonded to the polymer chain. The difference between the self-oscillating gel and our study on wave-shape pattern emergence is that the latter in comparison with the former, has more dependence on the interaction between the chemical reaction and the mechanical response. Adsorption reaction alone would not bring out any pattern without the interaction with mechanical response, which is therefore fundamental to wave-shape pattern formation. 

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