Development of advanced stimuli-responsive polymers

刺激响应性聚合物（Stimuli-responsive polymers，SRP）可以通过对信号的反应来改变它们的构象和性质，所述信号可以是周围环境的温度、pH或化学组成的变化、应力、光照射、电场或磁场以及超声。SRPs在药物输送、传感器和智能设备等各种应用中具有巨大的潜力，是一个活跃的研究领域。我们提出的计划旨在开发新的SRPs，其对刺激的反应可以以比迄今为止已知的系统更复杂和更精确的方式进行控制，并获得对给定聚合物的响应性与其结构之间关系的新的基础知识和理解。我们的基本策略是使用合理和创造性的分子和聚合物设计来解决一些基本问题，我们的研究将涵盖嵌段共聚物（BCP）胶束聚集体，BCP刷在基板上，形状记忆聚合物和BCP纳米结构的光学可控加工。我们的长期目标是为特定应用制定SRP设计的一般规则。

Stimuli-responsive polymers (SRPs) can change their conformations and properties by reacting to a signal that may be a change in temperature, pH or chemical composition of the surrounding, a stress, light irradiation, an electric or magnetic field and ultrasound. Holding great promises for diverse applications such as drug delivery, sensors and smart devices, SRPs represent an active research area. Our proposed program aims at developing new SRPs whose reactions to a stimulus can be controlled in a more complex and more precise manner than the systems known to date, and to gain new fundamental knowledge and understanding on the relationship between the responsiveness of a given polymer and its structure. Our basic strategy is to use rational and creative molecular and polymer designs to address a number of fundamental questions, and our studies will cover block copolymer (BCP) micellar aggregates, BCP brushes on a substrate, shape-memory polymers and optically controllable processing of BCP nanostructures. Our long-term objective is to contribute to establishing the general rules in designing SRPs for specific applications.