Stimuli-Responsive Supramolecular Polymers

Motivated by the persistent desire to develop new materials, which offer currently unavailable functions, research focused on the creation of polymers with tailored properties has evolved into an important field at the interface of chemistry, materials science, physics, and other disciplines. Due to their dynamic, stimuli-responsive nature, non-covalent interactions represent a versatile design element for the creation of stimuli-responsive polymers whose properties can be changed on command. In this presen­ta­tion several materials that rely on this general design approach will be discussed. Interactions that will be covered include hydrogen-bonds, p-p stacking, and metal-ligand binding. These were used to assemble small molecules, supramolecular polymers, nanoparticles and mixtures of these building blocks, to create healable, mechanically adapting, mechanoresponsive, and other functional polymers, including multi-stimuli multi-responsive systems.
 

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