Stimuli-responsive and shape-changing materials
Actuators are materials and devices, which are able to change their shape in response to change of environmental conditions (pH, T, UV, humidity) and, thus, perform mechanical work on nano, micro and marcoscales. Actuators find very broad application in microfabrication, microelectronics, medicine, lab-on-chip systems, etc. Because of their complexity, development of actuators includes both material and engineering aspects. There are plenty of examples of actuators based on metals, metal oxides and organic materials such as shape memory metals and polymers, bimetal strings, hydrogels etc. Among huge variety of different actuator materials polymer-based ones are highly attractive due to a spectrum of different properties of polymers. The polymers can be soft (viscoelastic state) and hard (glassy state) depending on their chemical and physical structure that allows the design of soft actuators for handling of soft living tissues and hard actuators for handling of metals. There are many polymers sensitive to different stimuli that allows design of actuators, which can be controlled by temperature, pH, biosignals, light, humidity, etc. Many polymers are biocompatible and biodegradable that allows integration of polymeric actuators in living systems and their resorption there.
We aim at the engineering of functional polymer thin films and fibers, which are able to reversibly fold and to form different 3D objects in response to change of environmental conditions. The primary goal is to use this approach for encapsulation of cells, design of scaffolds for tissue engineering, design of smart textiles and other.
Self-folding hydrogels
We need your consent to load content.
In order to show videos we use the services of third-party providers. These providers can collect data about your activities. Further details can be found under “Learn more”.Selected publications
Bai, Yongkang; Zhou, Zhijian; Zhu, Qixuan; Lu, Shaorong; Li, Yuqi; Ionov, Leonid
Electrospun cellulose acetate nanofibrous composites for multi-responsive shape memory actuator ...
in Carbohydrate Polymers volume 313 (2023)
doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.120868 ...
Bai, Yongkang; Ionov, Leonid
Thermo-, near-infrared light- and water-induced shape memory polymer with healing fatigued shap ...
in Materials Chemistry Frontiers (2022)
doi:10.1039/D2QM00041E ...
Posada Murcia, Andrés; Uribe Gómez, Juan Manuel; Förster, Stephan; Sommer, Jens-Uwe; Dulle, Martin; Ionov, Leonid
Mechanism of Behavior of Two-Way Shape Memory Polymer under Constant Strain Conditions
in Macromolecules volume 55 (2022) issue 5. - page 1680-1689
doi:10.1021/acs.macromol.1c02564 ...
Uribe Gómez, Juan Manuel; Posada Murcia, Andrés; Shukla, Amit; Ergin, Mert; Constante Ibarra, Gissela Katherine; Apsite, Indra; Dulle, Martin; Schwarzer, Madeleine; Caspari, Anja; Synytska, Alla; Salehi, Sahar; Ionov, Leonid
Shape-Morphing Fibrous Hydrogel/Elastomer Bilayers Fabricated by a Combination of 3D Printing a ...
in ACS Applied Bio Materials volume 4 (2021) issue 2. - page 1720-1730
doi:10.1021/acsabm.0c01495 ...
Zakharov, Andrei; Pismen, Len M.; Ionov, Leonid
Shape-morphing architectures actuated by Janus fibers
in Soft Matter volume 16 (2020) issue 8. - page 2086-2092
doi:10.1039/C9SM02441G ...
Stoychev, Georgi; Kirillova, Alina; Ionov, Leonid
Light-Responsive Shape-Changing Polymers
in Advanced Optical Materials volume 7 (2019) issue 16
doi:10.1002/adom.201900067 ...
Ionov, Leonid; Stoychev, Georgi; Jehnichen, Dieter; Sommer, Jens-Uwe
Reversibly Actuating Solid Janus Polymeric Fibers
in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces volume 9 (2017) issue 5. - page 4873-4881
doi:10.1021/acsami.6b13084 ...
Stoychev, Georgi; Reuther, Cordula; Diez, Stefan; Ionov, Leonid
Controlled Retention and Release of Biomolecular Transport Systems Using Shape-Changing Polymer Bilayers
in Angewandte Chemie International Edition vol. 55 (2016) issue 52. - pp. 16106-16109
doi:10.1002/anie.201608299 ...
Stoychev, Georgi; Guiducci, Lorenzo; Turcaud, Sébastien; Dunlop, John W. C.; Ionov, Leonid
Hole-Programmed Superfast Multistep Folding of Hydrogel Bilayers
in Advanced Functional Materials vol. 26 (2016) issue 42. - pp. 7733-7739
doi:10.1002/adfm.201602394 ...
Stroganov, Vladislav; Al-Hussein, Mahmoud; Sommer, Jens-Uwe; Janke, Andreas; Zakharchenko, Svetlana; Ionov, Leonid
Reversible Thermosensitive Biodegradable Polymeric Actuators Based on Confined Crystallization
in Nano Letters vol. 15 (2015) issue 3. - pp. 1786-1790
doi:10.1021/nl5045023 ...
Ionov, Leonid
Hydrogel-based actuators : possibilities and limitations
in Materials Today vol. 17 (2014) issue 10. - pp. 494-503
doi:10.1016/j.mattod.2014.07.002 ...
Magdanz, Veronika; Stoychev, Georgi; Ionov, Leonid; Sanchez, Samuel; Schmidt, Oliver G.
Stimuli-Responsive Microjets with Reconfigurable Shape
in Angewandte Chemie International Edition vol. 53 (2014) issue 10. - pp. 2673-2677
doi:10.1002/anie.201308610 ...
Stoychev, Georgi; Turcaud, Sébastien; Dunlop, John W. C.; Ionov, Leonid
Hierarchical Multi-Step Folding of Polymer Bilayers
in Advanced Functional Materials vol. 23 (2013) issue 18. - pp. 2295-2300
doi:10.1002/adfm.201203245 ...
Stoychev, Georgi; Zakharchenko, Svetlana; Turcaud, Sébastien; Dunlop, John W. C.; Ionov, Leonid
Shape-Programmed Folding of Stimuli-Responsive Polymer Bilayers
in ACS Nano vol. 6 (2012) issue 5. - pp. 3925-3934
doi:10.1021/nn300079f ...