Active and responsive polymer surfaces

Abstract

A central challenge in polymer science today is creating materials that dynamically alter their structures and properties on demand, or in response to changes in their environment. Surfaces represent an attractive area of focus, since they exert disproportionately large effects on properties such as wettability, adhesiveness, optical appearance, and bioactivity, enabling pronounced changes in properties to be accomplished through subtle changes in interfacial structure or chemistry. In this critical review, we review the recent research progress into active and responsive polymer surfaces. The chief purpose of this article is to summarize the advanced preparation techniques and applications in this field from the past decade. This review should be of interest both to new scientists in this field and the interdisciplinary researchers who are working on “intelligent” polymer surfaces (117 references).