Polymer-Based Flexible Materials, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Compared to traditional flexible materials, such as metal-based, ceramic-based, and glass-based materials, polymer-based flexible materials have advantages including low density, easy processing, excellent flexibility, and good environmental stability. Over the past few decades, polymer-based flexible materials have received significant attention, due to the rapid development of the electronic industry, medical treatment, health, and other fields. For instance, flexible electronic technology has great potential in reshaping the lifestyle of humans, but the bottleneck of flexible electronic technology is flexible substrates or flexible conductive materials, which can be solved by modifying or doping polymer-based flexible materials. Moreover, it is possible to synthesize new polymer-based flexible materials or modify them for different purposes to endow them with the corresponding functionality.

This Special Issue of Polymers aims to present full research papers, communications, and review articles on the latest advances in the fields of synthesis, characterization, and application of polymer-based flexible materials. Topics that will be covered include, but are not limited to, the synthesis of organic elastomers, conductive polymers, and flexible organic networks; structural characterization; modeling; and applications (i.e., sensor, energy harvesting, energy storage, electromagnetic shielding, and biomedical).

Dr. Jiangtao Xu
Dr. Sihang Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• polymer-based flexible materials
• flexible electronic devices
• functional polymer composites
• flexible EMI materials
• wearable sensors/actuators

• Polymer-Based Flexible Materials in Polymers (13 articles)

Title: Flexible positive temperature coefficient composites (PVAc/EVA/GP-CNF) with room temperature Curie Point
Authors: Chao Du; Yangyang Zhang; Jiangmin Lin; Guotao Fan; Can Zhou; Yan Yu
Affiliation: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Abstract: Polymeric PTC (positive temperature coefficient) materials with low switching temperature points are important for many electronic devices, which typically operate in the room temperature range (0-40°C). Ideal polymer PTC materials for flexible electronic thermal control should also include room temperature switching temperature, low room-temperature resistivity, good mechanical flexibility and adaptive thermal control properties. In this work, a new PTC material with room -temperature switching temperature and excellent mechanical properties is designed. A semi-crystalline polymer EVA with low melting temperature (Tm) and an amorphous polymer (PVAc) with low glass transition temperature (Tg) were blended and prepared. Low-cost graphite was selected as the conductive filler, while CNF was added as the hybrid filler to enhance the heating stability of the material. The PTC material has low switching temperature point (