Abstract
As a novel biomimetic polymer, we have developed polymer gels with an autonomous self-oscillating function. This was achieved by utilizing oscillating chemical reactions, called the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction, which is recognized as a chemical model for understanding several autonomous phenomena in biological systems. Under the coexistence of the reactants, the polymer gel undergoes spontaneous swelling-deswelling changes without any on-off switching by external stimuli. In this review, our recent studies on the self-oscillating polymer gels and application to biomimetic actuators are summarized.
Highlights
Over about the last two or three decades, many kinds of stimuli-responsive polymer gels, which respond to changes in their surroundings such as temperature, pH, and supply of electric field, etc., have been developed
Devices driven by a change in temperature or giving an electric field [3]
A novel biomimetic walking-gel actuator made of self-oscillating gel was successfully developed [30]
Summary
Over about the last two or three decades, many kinds of stimuli-responsive polymer gels, which respond to changes in their surroundings such as temperature, pH, and supply of electric field, etc., have been developed They have attracted much attention as smart (or biomimetic) materials, and several applications to actuator (artificial muscle), biosensor, drug delivery systems, purification or separation systems, tissue engineering, etc. Under the coexistence of the reactants in a closed and constant-conditioned solution, the polymer undergoes spontaneous cyclic soluble-insoluble changes or swelling-deswelling changes (in the case of gel) without any on-off switching by external stimuli, differently from conventional stimuli-responsive gels Since it was first reported in 1996 as “self-oscillating gel” [10], we have been systematically studying the self-oscillating polymer and gel as well as their applications to biomimetic or smart materials [11,12,13]. These recent progress on the self-oscillating polymer gels and the design of autonomic and biomimetic actuators are summarized
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