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Thermoresponsive hydrogels (TRHs) are recognized for their ability to undergo reversible volumetric and morphological transformations in response to thermal stimuli. However, despite advances in formulation and reinforcement strategies, the actuation performance of TRHs, including deformation amplitude, response speed, and recovery efficiency, remains constrained. TRH actuators are typically synthesized in aqueous media, forming densely entangled networks that restrict water diffusion, resulting in sluggish and hysteresis actuation behavior. Here, the study introduces a synergistic fabrication strategy combining ice‐templating with in situ polymerization to produce porous, anisotropically structured TRH actuators based on poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) hydrogels. Controlled unidirectional ice crystal growth, followed by melting, yields aligned porous networks that facilitate rapid solvent transport, enhancing actuation speed and suppressing hysteresis. Mechanical resilience is further significantly achieved by incorporating polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as physical entanglements, elevating compressive strength to ≈112 kPa compared to ≈10 kPa for conventional PNIPAm hydrogels. Importantly, the reinforced semi‐interpenetrating PNIPAm/PVA hydrogels demonstrate rapid recovery within ≈90 s, substantially outperforming the traditional dense structures that require several hours. The integration of ice‐templated architectural control with compositional reinforcement enables the development of strong, fast‐responding, and low‐hysteresis TRHs, offering significant potential for next‐generation soft actuators, sensors, and artificial muscles, which will demand rapid and cyclically reliable operation. The study demonstrates a synergistic fabrication concept that combines ice‐templating with in situ polymerization to produce semi‐interpenetrating network thermoresponsive hydrogels with aligned porous architectures. The thermoresponsive hydrogels exhibit rapid actuation and recovery, low hysteresis, and improved compressive strength. This work demonstrates a scalable design for high‐performance soft actuators and temperature‐responsive fluidic systems.

Alginate hydrogels offer distinct advantages as ionically crosslinked, biocompatible networks that can be shaped into spherical beads with high compositional flexibility. These spherical architectures provide isotropic geometry, modularity and the capacity for encapsulation, making them ideal platforms for scalable, stimuli-responsive actuation. Their ability to respond to thermal, magnetic, electrical, optical and chemical stimuli has enabled applications in targeted delivery, artificial muscles, microrobotics and environmental interfaces. This review examines recent advances in alginate sphere-based actuators, focusing on fabrication methods such as droplet microfluidics, coaxial flow and functional surface patterning, and strategies for introducing multi-stimuli responsiveness using smart polymers, nanoparticles and biologically active components. Actuation behaviours are understood and correlated with physical mechanisms including swelling kinetics, photothermal effects and the field-induced torque, supported by analytical and multiphysics models. Their demonstrated functionalities include shape transformation, locomotion and mechano-optical feedback. The review concludes with an outlook on the existing limitations, such as the material stability, cyclic durability and integration complexity, and proposes future directions toward the development of autonomous, multifunctional soft systems.

Bioplastics and biocomposites are eco‐friendly alternatives to their petrochemical derived commodity material, but tend to have inferior mechanical and thermal properties. In this work, short‐fiber self‐reinforced bioplastic composites (SRBCs) have been developed that seek to overcome some of these shortcomings. The SRBCs leverage melt‐spun drawn poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐3‐hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) fibers with axially‐oriented crystalline structures that exhibit a ≈6.7 °C higher melt temperature than the same PHBV in isotropic form. This enables a controlled‐temperature compounding process that preserves the crystalline structure of the fibers without distortion and ensures uniform distribution within the matrix. The resultant composites display a ≈35% increase in ultimate tensile strength and a ≈55% increase in impact resistance compared to neat PHBV polymer. This monolithic‐type composite system, characterized by high interfacial compatibility and strong fiber‐matrix adhesion, also supports high‐value recycling while preserving its mechanical properties across multiple lifecycle uses. By focusing upon discontinuous short fiber reinforcement, this work provides unprecedented opportunities for scaling SRBCs through commodity application pathways such as injection molding, compression molding, and 3D printing.

Twisted polymer fibre actuators provide high torsional rotation from stimulated volume expansion, induced either by chemical fuelling, thermal stimulation, or electrochemical charging. One key limitation of these actuators is the irreversibility of torsional stroke that limits their feasibility when considering real-life smart applications. Moreover, scaling the torsional stroke of these actuators becomes difficult when these are integrated into practically usable systems such as smart textiles, due to the external and variable opposing torque that is applied by the adjacent non-actuating fibres. Herein, a simple composite type torsional actuator made of hydrogel coated commercial textile cotton multifilament fibre is demonstrated. This novel actuator is of high moisture responsiveness, given that hydrogels are capable of providing huge volume expansion and twisting the overall system can transform the volumetric expansion to fibre untwisting based torsional actuation. Theoretical treatment of torsional actuation is also demonstrated based on the change in torsional stiffness of dry and wet fibres as well as a few externally applied torques. The agreement between experimental measurements and theoretical estimation is found reasonable, and the investigation allows the near-appropriate estimation of torsional stroke before integrating an actuator into a smart system.

Nanocomposite hydrogels are highly porous colloidal structures with a high adsorption capacity, making them promising materials for wastewater treatment. In particular, magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) incorporated hydrogels are an excellent adsorbent for aquatic pollutants. An added advantage is that, with the application of an external magnetic field, magnetic hydrogels can be collected back from the wastewater system. However, magnetic hydrogels are quite brittle and structurally unstable under compact conditions such as in fixed-bed adsorption columns. To address this issue, this study demonstrates a unique hydrogel composite bead structure, providing a good adsorption capacity and superior compressive stress tolerance due to the presence of hollow cores within the beads. The gel beads contain alginate polymer as the matrix and MNP-decorated cellulose nanofibres (CNF) as the reinforcing agent. The MNPs within the gel provide active adsorption functionality, while CNF provide a good stress transfer phenomenon when the beads are under compressive stress. Their adsorption performance is evaluated in a red mud solution for pollutant adsorption. Composite gel beads have shown high performance in adsorbing metal (aluminium, potassium, selenium, sodium, and vanadium) and non-metal (sulphur) contaminations. This novel hybrid hydrogel could be a promising alternative to the conventionally used toxic adsorbent, providing environmentally friendly operational benefits.

Carbon fibre reinforced polymer composites have high mechanical properties that make them exemplary engineered materials to carry loads and stresses. Coupling fibre and matrix together require good understanding of not only fibre morphology but also matrix rheology. One way of having a strongly coupled fibre and matrix interface is to size the reinforcing fibres by means of micro- or nanocarbon materials coating on the fibre surface. Common coating materials used are carbon nanotubes and nanofibres and graphene, and more recently carbon black (colloidal particles of virtually pure elemental carbon) and graphite. There are several chemical, thermal, and electrochemical processes that are used for coating the carbonous materials onto a carbon fibre surface. Sizing of fibres provides higher interfacial adhesion between fibre and matrix and allows better fibre wetting by the surrounded matrix material. This review paper goes over numerous techniques that are used for engineering the interface between both fibre and matrix systems, which is eventually the key to better mechanical properties of the composite systems.

Passive vibration control using polymer composites has been extensively investigated by the engineering community. In this paper, a new kind of vibration dampening polymer composite was developed where oriented nylon 6 fibres were used as the reinforcement, and 3D printed unoriented nylon 6 was used as the matrix material. The shape of the reinforcing fibres was modified to a coiled structure which transformed the fibres into a smart thermoresponsive actuator. This novel self-reinforced composite was of high mechanical robustness and its efficacy was demonstrated as an active dampening system for oscillatory vibration of a heated vibrating system. The blocking force generated within the reinforcing coiled actuator was responsible for dissipating vibration energy and increase the magnitude of the damping factor compared to samples made of non-reinforced nylon 6. Further study shows that the appropriate annealing of coiled actuators provides an enhanced dampening capability to the composite structure. The extent of crystallinity of the reinforcing actuators is found to directly influence the vibration dampening capacity.

Polyimide-silica (PI-Silica) composites are of tremendous research interest as high-performance materials because of their excellent thermal and mechanical properties and chemical resistance to organic solvents. Particularly, the sol-gel method of fabricating such composites is popular for manipulating their properties. In this work, PI-silica composite films are synthesized by the sol-gel method and thermal imidization from the solution mixtures of hydrolyzed tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) (or glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPMS)) modified silica and an aromatic polyamic acid (PAA) based on 3,3′,4,4′-biphenyl tetracarboxylic dianhydride (BPDA)–p-phenylenediamine (PDA). The phase morphology of composites is found to be controlled by the substitution of TEOS with GPMS. Solid-state NMR spectroscopy is used to confirm the structural components of silica and GPMS-modified silica, whereas FT-IR results confirm the complete imidization of polyimide and composite film and suggest successful incorporation of Si–O–Si bonds into polyimide. The thermal, optical transmittance, and dielectric constant characterizations of pure polyimide and composite films are also carried out. Thermal stability of pure polyimide is found to be increased significantly by the addition of silica, whereas the partial substitution of TEOS with GPMS decreases the thermal stability of the composite, due to the presence of the alkyl organic segment of GPMS. The optical transmittance and dielectric constant of the composite films are controlled by manipulating the GPMS content.

The selection of biomaterials as biomedical implants is a significant challenge. Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) and composites of such kind have been extensively used in medical implants, notably in the bearings of the hip, knee, and other joint prostheses, owing to its biocompatibility and high wear resistance. For the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) graft, synthetic UHMWPE is an ideal candidate due to its biocompatibility and extremely high tensile strength. However, significant problems are observed in UHMWPE based implants, such as wear debris and oxidative degradation. To resolve the issue of wear and to enhance the life of UHMWPE as an implant, in recent years, this field has witnessed numerous innovative methodologies such as biofunctionalization or high temperature melting of UHMWPE to enhance its toughness and strength. The surface functionalization/modification/treatment of UHMWPE is very challenging as it requires optimizing many variables, such as surface tension and wettability, active functional groups on the surface, irradiation, and protein immobilization to successfully improve the mechanical properties of UHMWPE and reduce or eliminate the wear or osteolysis of the UHMWPE implant. Despite these difficulties, several surface roughening, functionalization, and irradiation processing technologies have been developed and applied in the recent past. The basic research and direct industrial applications of such material improvement technology are very significant, as evidenced by the significant number of published papers and patents. However, the available literature on research methodology and techniques related to material property enhancement and protection from wear of UHMWPE is disseminated, and there is a lack of a comprehensive source for the research community to access information on the subject matter. Here we provide an overview of recent developments and core challenges in the surface modification/functionalization/irradiation of UHMWPE and apply these findings to the case study of UHMWPE for ACL repair.