Tunable smart materials

Science Daily  March 22, 2021
Biological molecules in living organisms have a remarkable ability to form self-assembled structures when triggered by an external molecule. Based on this concept researchers in Japan created a tunable system involving poly(sodium acrylate) microparticles that can have one of two types of chemical groups attached. The adjustable parameters x and y refer to the molar percent of microparticles with β-cyclodextrin and adamantyl residues, respectively. The shape of assemblies formed by microparticles was dependent on the residue content. For assemblies to form, x needed to be at least 22.3. As the value of y increased, the clusters became more and more elongated. The team hypothesized that at higher values of y led to elongated aggregates and low value of y resulted in more spherical aggregates. This provides a way to tune to the shape of the resulting clusters. This work may lead to advances in ‘smart’ materials, including sensors and damage-resistant surfaces…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE 

Interaction of βCD(26.7)-SAP and Ad(y)-SAP microparticles. Credit: Scientific Reports volume 11, Article number: 6320 (2021)

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