Responsive materials
- PDF / 2,049,878 Bytes
- 7 Pages / 585 x 783 pts Page_size
- 27 Downloads / 217 Views
Introduction Materials that change their properties in a discontinuous or nonlinear response to a signal or change in environment are of increasing interest in a great variety of applications. The materials themselves range from inorganic solids, metals, and alloys through to organic polymers and supramolecular assemblies, while applications span areas as diverse as pharmaceutical technology, regenerative medicine, adaptive optics, electronics, energy transduction, engineering alloys, and self-healing systems. Research in the area of responsive materials is growing at a rapid pace, with nearly 3000 publications concerning responsive polymers alone in the last 20 years, while new publications in the field are being added at a rate of more than 1000 per year. Numerous patents and spin-out companies and a growing number of researchers attest to the vibrancy in this field. This interest is primarily due to the intrinsically dynamic properties of responsive materials, which enable the interconversion of energies to do work, for example, by changing chemical potential into kinetic energy. Natural materials perform this very well, of course, and many researchers have sought to exploit biological or biomimetic responses in order to generate signals, forces, or motion. The many examples in nature of chemically powered molecular motors, ranging from the well-known F1 ATPase1 and the actin-myosin systems,2 through to more recently studied systems such as DNA-methylating and translocating motors,3
have been a source of inspiration for design and application of responsive materials.4,5 However, molecular motion is but one aspect of response, and properties such as energy harvesting and self-healing are also included in real-world applications. In this theme issue, leading authors from key areas of responsive materials contribute expert reviews, indicating not just what the current state-of-the-art is, but also outlining where future developments might go.
In this issue In the field of responsive materials for drug delivery applications, Jérôme considers macromolecular engineering and stimulus response in the design of advanced drug delivery systems. The need for responsive materials in drug delivery stems primarily from the conflicting requirements of protecting a drug from the body and the body from the drug during transport to a disease site and releasing it at the right time, in the right dose, and in the right place. At a time when the pharmaceutical industry is developing more potent small molecule drug candidates and biomacromolecules, the ability to ensure these therapeutics are targeted to the correct sites in the body is becoming ever more important. Furthermore, biomolecule therapeutics such as proteins are both fragile and costly, and thus need to be formulated with and transported by materials that are robust to one set of conditions but respond rapidly to a biological trigger to effect release (Figure 1).
Cameron Alexander, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, [email protected] Iqbal Gill, Terr
Data Loading...
