Participating Group (2020-2021)

Rational　design of crystal transforming behavior by using anisotropically transforming soft crystals responding to external stimuli.

Research Outline

Polymer gels are well-known to exhibit a large volumetric change, thus many researchers have explored their application for various actuators. However, the construction of polymer gels with ordered network structure, such as muscle, is still a challenging problem in the field of polymer chemistry. The researchers will develop various polymer gels with ordered network structure derived from the crystal structure of the ingredient porous crystal, metal-organic framework (MOF). Therein, the polymer gels are obtained by crosslinking of MOF with the guest molecule followed by softening of the MOF. These polymer gels can reversibly demonstrate anisotropic transforming behavior analogous to a muscle, based on the anisotropy of the original MOF crystal. The introduction of stimuli-responsivity to the crosslinker and so on will allow us to obtain an advanced smart actuator responding to various external stimuli such as heat, light, or electric field, via a bottom-up approach.

Participating Group (2018-2019)

Development of anisotropically transforming soft crystals with stimuli-responsivity by softening porous crystals

Research Outline

TPolymer gels are well-known to exhibit a large volumetric change, thus many researchers have explored their application for various actuators. However, the construction of polymer gels with ordered network structure, such as muscle, is still a challenging problem in the field of polymer chemistry. The researchers will develop various polymer gels with ordered network structure derived from the crystal structure of the ingredient porous crystal, metal-organic framework (MOF). Therein, the polymer gels are obtained by crosslinking of MOF with the guest molecule followed by softening of the MOF. These polymer gels can reversibly demonstrate anisotropic transforming behavior analogous to a muscle, based on the anisotropy of the original MOF crystal. The introduction of stimuli-responsivity to the crosslinker and so on will allow us to obtain an advanced smart actuator responding to various external stimuli such as heat, light, or electric field, via a bottom-up approach.