Smart membranes, conductive polymers

The presence of polymer, solvent, and ionic components in conducting polymers reminds one of the composition of the materials chosen by nature to produce muscles, neurons, and skin in living creatures. We will describe here some devices ready for commercial applications, such as artificial muscles, smart windows, or smart membranes other industrial products such as polymeric batteries or smart mirrors and processes and devices under development, such as biocompatible nervous system interfaces, smart membranes, and electron-ion transducers, all of them based on the electrochemical behavior of electrodes that are three dimensional at the molecular level. During the discussion we will emphasize the analogies between these electrochemical systems and analogous biological systems. Our aim is to introduce an electrochemistry for conducting polymers, and by extension, for any electrodic process where the structure of the electrode is taken into account. 

The dynamic character of conducting polymers has been used to advantage in the development of new smart membrane technologies.68,69 70 71 72 A membrane consist-... 

Otero, T. R Martinez, J. G. Arias-Pardilla, J. Biomimetic electrochemistry from conducting polymers. A review artificial muscles, smart membranes, smart drug delivery and computer/neuron interfaces. Electrochim. Acta 2012, 84, 112-128. 

Rikukawa, M., Inagaki, D., Kaneko, K., Takeoka, Y., Ito, 1., Kanzaki, Y., and Sanui, K., 2005, Proton conductivity of smart membranes based on hydrocarbon polymers having phosphoric acid groups, J. Molecular Structure 739 153-161. 

An area with some further-off potential—smart membranes of conductive polymers— is being pursued by a team at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M. The lab s Chemical Sciences and Technical Development Division has developed engineered porous-fiber materials with electrically controlled porosity using polyaniline. The technology could find use in gas separation, pharmaceutical separation, environmental cleanup, batteries, or capacitors. A spin-off company to develop the technology already has been established. 

The understanding of bio- and chemo-catalytic functionalities, their integration in recognizing materials (doped materials, membranes, tubes, conductive materials, biomarker detection, etc.) and the development of smart composite materials (e.g., bio-polymer-metal) are all necessary elements to reach above objectives. It is thus necessary to create the conditions to realize a cross-fertilization between scientific areas such as catalysis, membrane technology, biotech materials, porous solids, nanocomposites, etc., which so far have had limited interaction. Synergic interactions are the key factor to realizing the advanced nanoengineered devices cited above. 

Smart textiles is a new aspect in textile that is a multidiscipline field of research in many sciences and technologies such as textile, physics, chemistry, medicine, electronics, polymers, biotechnology, telecommunications, information technology, microelectronics, wearable computers, nanotechnology and micro-electromechanical machines. Shape memory materials (SMMs), conductive materials, phase change materials (PCMs), chromic materials, photonic fibers, mechanical responsive materials, intelligent coating/membranes, micro and nanomaterials and piezoelectric materials are applied in smart textiles [34]. 

---