Durable, anti-drying piezoelectric organohydrogels developed via solvent exchange enable multifunctional touchscreen navigation and high-accuracy smart glove gesture recognition for soft robotics.
Dynamic transetherification enables epoxy resins combining mechanical robustness, thermal and chemical stability, low creep, and efficient reprocessing, addressing the trade-off between performance and recyclability.
Controlled monomer substitution shifts the T g -flexibility trade-off in polycarbosilane networks, yielding thermally robust matrices with high deformability and UL94 V-0 behavior in composite structures.
A design framework connecting molecular architecture and processing to shape-memory function and degradation timeline in biodegradable polymer composites for transient biomedical and sustainable devices.
Optical memory, or color retention, is a key property for energy efficient electrochromic devices. Including an anion exchange membrane between an electrochromic polymer and a redox-active electrolyte dramatically improves optical memory.
A mixed monomer synthesis produces polymers of varying disorder. The percentage of accessible redox-sites (RSA) in these materials can be used to search for structure–property correlations and guide electrode development for energy-storage devices.
Despite being widely used in industrial applications, thermoset polymers arguably present a major challenge to modern society due to the near impossibility of their end-of-life recycling and reprocessing. Furthermore, there are difficulties in finding bio-based alternatives to the fossil-based building blocks used for their production that can deliver comparable mechanical performance. These limitations have driven growing interest in vitrimers, associative covalent adaptable networks capable of being recycled, welded and reprocessed without changes in cross-linking density through dynamic covalent exchange. Vitrimers provide a promising strategy to address both the recyclability of thermosets and the need for more sustainable materials. The use of bio-based chemicals in vitrimer production can further help reduce the environmental impact and toxicity, supporting the transition to circular polymer systems. This review summarizes recent advances in bio-based vitrimer systems, with particular emphasis on renewable feedstocks such as carbohydrates, lignin-derived aromatics, and vegetable oils, and their translation into functional materials. Rather than focusing solely on exchange chemistry concepts, the manuscript highlights the emerging applications of newly developed bio-based vitrimers in composites, packaging, additive manufacturing, adhesives, electronics, and foams. By organizing recent literature according to feedstock families and application domains, this work provides an updated, application-oriented perspective on the development of sustainable vitrimer technologies. Overall, bio-based vitrimers represent a promising platform for the development of next-generation recyclable thermosets within a circular and sustainable polymer framework.
Modern industries are experiencing a dual transition: advancing toward sustainability (Industry 5.0) goals while simultaneously embracing Industry 4.0, characterized by Internet of Things (IoT)-driven smartification. This rapid expansion of interconnected devices is occurring in an era where conventional electronics remain fundamentally unsustainable, with persistent challenges in recycling, metal segregation, and circularity. This disconnect necessitates alternative material and fabrication strategies that can enable scalable sensor deployment without exacerbating environmental burdens. In this review, we analyze recent progress (over the last five years) in low-temperature fabricated polymer-driven sensors, focusing on their relevance for sustainable environmental and health monitoring. Advances across different polymer families and fabrication techniques are systematically examined, with evaluation from both sustainability and scalability perspectives. Special emphasis is placed on how these approaches address limitations of conventional high-temperature, resource-intensive processes and their applicability across sectors such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and chemicals. By examining current literature in light of the dual transition, the review identifies recent trends, outlines knowledge gaps, and highlights pathways for integrating polymer-based sensors into large-scale, environmentally responsible technologies.
Sulfo-phenylated polyphenylene biphenyl (sPPB) is a promising class of fluorine-free polymer for proton exchange membranes (PEMs) in energy conversion devices. However, membranes cast from sPPB often have limited mechanical strength...
The development and integration of polymer-based smart materials, which have the inherent capacity to recognize and respond to a variety of external stimuli (such as thermal, electrical, and mechanical), are driving the growth and change of the robotics field. This combination is essential for the shift in robotic design towards bio-inspired and flexible designs. This review describes the various smart polymer-based materials used in robotics, along with advances in the field and representative applications. A brief overview of recent developments is provided, with particular attention to 3D printing and the development of hybrid stimuli-responsive composites. The increasing integration of polymer-based smart materials will enable the next generation of robots to achieve unprecedented levels of agility, autonomy, and flexible operation in challenging applications, highlighting their transformative role in robotics evolution.
Machine learning and high throughput experimentation have heavily influenced the way scientific study is done with demonstrated successes in nearly every field.
Microplastics are significant environmental contaminants affecting human health. Various polymeric adsorbents can play a major role in the effective removal of microplastics.
A fully degradable ternary blend system comprising bio-based poly(butylene succinate) (BioPBS), poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT), and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) was developed to achieve a tailored stiffness-toughness balance. The influence of polymer selection, relative ratios, and hybrid compatibilizer addition on blend properties was systematically investigated. Morphological analysis revealed that the blend components remained largely immiscible, consistent with solubility parameter predictions, while interfacial tension measurements indicated that BioPBS effectively separated PHBV and PBAT phases. Optimized ternary blends with 50 wt% PHBV exhibited synergistic mechanical performance, reaching elongation at break close to 100%, tensile strength around 35 MPa, and Young's modulus exceeding 1.6 GPa. Rheological analysis suggested enhanced interfacial interactions due to increased chain entanglement, even in the absence of a compatibilizer. Incorporation of 3-5 wt% hybrid compatibilizer further enhanced mechanical and thermal performance, with elongation at break increasing by 8%, impact strength by 15%, and Young's modulus by 9%, alongside improved thermal stability. These improvements were attributed to interfacial chemical interactions confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, enhanced phase adhesion observed via scanning electron microscopy, and more entangled or cross-linked networks indicated by rheology. The results demonstrate that BioPBS/PBAT/PHBV ternary blends can be tailored to produce fully degradable materials with tunable mechanical and thermal properties. Hot melt cast extrusion processing was employed to obtain a cast sheet with high barrier properties, highlighting its potential for sustainable packaging applications.
Biodegradable polysaccharide films containing photosensitizing compounds have attracted growing attention for the development of functional food packaging materials. In this study, alginate-based films containing curcumin (Cur) and chlorophyllin (Chi) were...
In PEO-based electrolytes, both polymer segmental motion and specific salt chemistry are vital for ion transport. Electrolytes incorporating multiple polymers enable optimization of the ion solvation environment to enhance ion transport.
This work reports pronounced clusteroluminescence from non-conjugated polymers of cyclohexyl vinyl ether, which exhibit bright emission and are promising for information encoding applications.
Triphenylene-based discotic liquid-crystalline compounds with two kinds of photo-reactive groups on their side chains have been developed. The columnar structure was fixed by [2 + 2] cycloaddition reaction between neighboring...
Herein, we report on an unprecedented aqueous crosslinking strategy for the synthesis of well-defined core-crosslinked polycarbonate nanogels, offering a highly versatile platform that enables both polymer end group and side-chain functionalisation. Hydrophilic core-crosslinked polycarbonate nanogels are highly promising for drug delivery, as they are fully biodegradable and biocompatible. However, many current covalent crosslinking approaches require harsh reaction conditions and cannot usually be performed in aqueous media, especially at neutral and acidic pH values. Therefore, in this study, we introduce a novel, water-compatible crosslinking approach for the preparation of polycarbonate nanogels. For that purpose, we self-assemble amphiphilic polycarbonate block copolymers with transiently stable hemiacetal esters in their side chains to polymer precursor micelles. Those precursor micelles are transformed into hydrophilic nanogels by the simultaneous degradation of the hemiacetal esters and the crosslinking of liberated deprotected carboxylic acids with diamines. Such crosslinking can be achieved with 4-(4,6-dimethoxy-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)-4-methyl morpholinium DMTMM chloride as an effective water-stable coupling reagent under neutral and even slightly acidic pH conditions. This synthetic procedure is particularly intriguing for biodegradable polymers, which would otherwise degrade under basic conditions, such as polycarbonates. Moreover, since these polymers can also be selectively modified at the chain ends, the side chains are exclusively used for crosslinking, which allows for a whole new approach to the fabrication of nanogels with precisely defined nanotopologies.
Poly(gamma-glutamic acid) (PGA) is a biodegradable microbial polypeptide with potential for sustainable film materials, but its strong hydrophilicity and swelling tendency limit its mechanical stability under wet conditions. Herein, we report dual-crosslinked PGA/chitosan nanofiber (CsF) composite films with improved water resistance, enhanced wet mechanical stability, and tunable degradability. PGA was modified with furan groups and covalently crosslinked with 4-arm poly(ethylene glycol) maleimide through a Diels-Alder reaction, while CsF served as a physical crosslinking domain through electrostatic interactions between its amino groups and the carboxyl groups of PGA. Notably, as the CsF content increased from 0 to 1.0 wt%, the mechanical strength of the composite films markedly improved. The optimized 1.0 wt% CsF film showed a dry tensile strength of 75.7 MPa, 8.7 times higher than that of the neat film, and retained a wet tensile strength of 4.3 MPa and a wet toughness of 1.12 MJ m-3 in the fully swollen state in deionized water. This wet-state robustness was further supported by a reduced equilibrium swelling ratio of 951% and an increased water contact angle from 25 degrees to 85 degrees. Moreover, the films exhibited complete degradation within 60 days in natural soil and 90 days in enzyme-containing artificial seawater. This work provides a feasible strategy for balancing wet mechanical robustness and degradability in PGA-based sustainable films.
