Design and Applications of Dynamic Interfacial Materials

Abstract

Interfacial materials such as particles, films, and self-assemblies are useful for medical, environmental, and energy applications due to their large specific surface areas and unique surface/interfacial properties. We have designed a variety of responsive interfacial materials with dynamic structures such as molecular complex cross-links, photodimerizable groups, and liquid crystalline phases to develop drug delivery systems, sensors, separation systems, etc. For example, polymer particles with molecular complex and disulfide crosslinks underwent size changes in response to a target molecule and a reducing environment. Stimuli-responsive gel films with molecular binding sites were formed on surface plasmon resonance and quartz microbalance sensor chips by molecular imprinting. An interpenetrating polymer network（IPN）consisting of temperatureresponsive poly （N-isopropyl acrylamide） and hydrophilic sodium alginate networks absorbed considerable moisture from the air at temperatures below its LCST and oozes the absorbed moisture as liquid water above its LCST. These phenomena allow us to harvest liquid water from the air. Temperature-responsive polymeric membranes and micelles were also designed using dynamic structures of liquid crystalline polymers（LCPs）．Amphiphilic LCPs, which undergo a liquid crystalline–isotropic phase transition at body temperature, formed temperature-responsive micelles that reversibly regulated drug release in response to temperature, without undergoing dissociation. This paper highlights our recent results on interfacial materials designed with dynamic structures and their applications.