Self-assembly Smart Materials

A special issue of Journal of Functional Biomaterials (ISSN 2079-4983).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2018) | Viewed by 21829

Special Issue Editor

Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Einsiedlerstrasse 31, 8820 Waedenswil, Switzerland
Interests: janus nanoparticles; amphiphiles; surfaces and interfaces; surfactants and polymers; colloids; self-assembly; supra-amphiphiles; conductive polymers; conductive polymeric nanoparticles

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is the great challenge of this century for material sciences to advance beyond current boundaries into the realm of smart and intelligent materials. Smart materials, such as stimuli responsive, or self-healing, bear simple written programs within their structure that allows them to perform simple functions and posses some environmental physico-chemical “awareness”. It can be said that the job of the chemist, biologist or material scientist resembles that of a software engineer who incorporates intelligence into a computer program. Recent advances puts material sciences into another direction, namely that of intelligent materials that could perform multiple functions and even share some common traits to living organisms, such as self-replication, competition for resources, survivability, etc. We now understand that living organisms are in their essence self-assembly structures at non-equilibrium, or dynamic equilibrium, which exist as long as they can harness a source of energy. We anticipate great progress in this direction in future and Nature is throughout our main source for inspiration in creating intelligent materials. The focus of this Special Issue is to cover the recent progress in the broad interdisciplinary areas of smart materials via self-assembly either at equilibrium or non-equilibrium, such as micelles, vesicles, stimuli-responsive delivery systems, nanoparticles and their assemblies, self-replicators, life de nuovo and the newest advances in dynamic combinatorial chemistry.

Prof. Dr. Andrei Honciuc
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Smart materials
  • Intelligent materials
  • Stimuli responsive
  • Nanoparticles, micelles, vesicles
  • Dynamic combinatorial chemistry
  • Self-assembly at equilibrium
  • Dynamic self-assembly
  • Self-replicators

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

24 pages, 4204 KiB  
Review
Formulation of Poloxamers for Drug Delivery
by Andrew M. Bodratti and Paschalis Alexandridis
J. Funct. Biomater. 2018, 9(1), 11; https://doi.org/10.3390/jfb9010011 - 18 Jan 2018
Cited by 378 | Viewed by 21313
Abstract
Poloxamers, also known as Pluronics®, are block copolymers of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(propylene oxide) (PPO), which have an amphiphilic character and useful association and adsorption properties emanating from this. Poloxamers find use in many applications that require solubilization or stabilization [...] Read more.
Poloxamers, also known as Pluronics®, are block copolymers of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(propylene oxide) (PPO), which have an amphiphilic character and useful association and adsorption properties emanating from this. Poloxamers find use in many applications that require solubilization or stabilization of compounds and also have notable physiological properties, including low toxicity. Accordingly, poloxamers serve well as excipients for pharmaceuticals. Current challenges facing nanomedicine revolve around the transport of typically water-insoluble drugs throughout the body, followed by targeted delivery. Judicious design of drug delivery systems leads to improved bioavailability, patient compliance and therapeutic outcomes. The rich phase behavior (micelles, hydrogels, lyotropic liquid crystals, etc.) of poloxamers makes them amenable to multiple types of processing and various product forms. In this review, we first present the general solution behavior of poloxamers, focusing on their self-assembly properties. This is followed by a discussion of how the self-assembly properties of poloxamers can be leveraged to encapsulate drugs using an array of processing techniques including direct solubilization, solvent displacement methods, emulsification and preparation of kinetically-frozen nanoparticles. Finally, we conclude with a summary and perspective. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Self-assembly Smart Materials)
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