Features:

• Offers highly relevant information previously unavailable in a single text
• Examines the feasibility of systems designed for biological use from both kinetic and thermodynamic points of view
• Compares fast-responsive polymeric systems to existing, natural systems
• Explores methods for preparing flash systems for specific applications

Reflexive Polymers and Hydrogels: Understanding and Designing Fast-Responsive Polymeric Systems examines several natural systems that respond rapidly to environmental stimuli, providing the reader with an understanding of mechanisms that govern these responses. It also considers limitations of reflexive systems, by investigating model systems where selected interactions of specific components are evaluated to determine theoretical limits of response rates and cycle time.

The text characterizes the status of artificially prepared materials that could have both thermodynamic and kinetic response events, and explores potential future applications of such systems. It includes chapters on how to design synthetic reflexive systems based on an understanding of the naturally occurring systems, and discusses potential applications of reflexive systems in biomedical and pharmaceutical areas. Designed for those working in controlled drug delivery, tissue engineering and biomedical engineering, this groundbreaking text is one of the first to deal with kinetic and thermodynamic aspects of smart polymers and hydrogels, with a specific focus on extremely fast-responsive systems.

Contents

1. Learning from Natural Systems
   1. Learning from Nature: Examples of Rapid, Repetitive, Responsive Biological Events
   2. Seismonastic Movements in Plants
   3. Contractile Systems of Muscles
   4. Bacterial Flagellar Motor
   5. Molecular Mechanisms of Cytoplasmic Streaming in Plant Cells
   6. Natural Polymer Gels with Fast Responses

2. Theoretical Considerations
   7. Kinetics of Smart Hydrogels
   8. Polyelectrolyte Properties of Solutions and Gels
   9. Kinetics in Cyclic Hydrogel Systems
   10. Cooperative Binding in Surfactant-Polymer Association: A Brief Overview
   11. Rate-Limiting Steps in Volume Change Kinetics of Fast-Responsive Microporous Gels

3. Synthetic Systems
   12. Fast Shrinkable Materials
   13. Fast Swelling Hydrogel Systems
   14. Fast Sliding Motions of Supramolecular Assemblies
   15. Light-Induced Molecular Orientations
   16. Fast Responsive Liquid Crystalline Polymer Systems
   17. Engineering New Generation Drug Delivery Systems Based on Block Copolymer Micelles: Physicochemical Aspects
   18. Fast Responsive Nanoparticles of Hydrophobically Modified Poly(Amino Acid)s and Proteinoids
   19. Fast Biodegradable Polymers

4. A Perspective on Reflexive Systems
   20. A Perspective on Current and Future Synthetic Reflexive Systems

Index

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