Issue 43, 2021

Designing self-propagating polymers with ultrasensitivity through feedback signal amplification

Abstract

Inspired by the self-adaptive nature of living organisms, the development of stimuli-responsive polymers that can sense and respond to surrounding microenvironments has received increasing interest. To date, stimuli-responsive polymers have found promising applications in terms of smart coatings, actuators, photolithography, imaging and diagnosis, and so on. Notwithstanding significant progress, it remains a grand challenge to improve the sensitivity of stimuli-responsive polymers toward external stimuli, which is, however, highly desirable in practical applications when the input signals are very weak. To circumvent this problem, self-propagating polymers have been developed, which enable the amplification of input signals in a positive feedback manner, thereby exponentially elevating the sensitivity. In this minireview, we summarize the recent design strategies and potential applications of self-propagating polymers by integrating feedback signal amplification modules, which have shown promising applications ranging from fundamental research to industry.

Graphical abstract: Designing self-propagating polymers with ultrasensitivity through feedback signal amplification

Article information

Article type
Minireview
Submitted
13 Aug 2021
Accepted
10 Oct 2021
First published
12 Oct 2021

Polym. Chem., 2021,12, 6230-6241

Designing self-propagating polymers with ultrasensitivity through feedback signal amplification

J. Tan, J. Hu and S. Liu, Polym. Chem., 2021, 12, 6230 DOI: 10.1039/D1PY01095F

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