Abstract
In this review, I introduce the function and the application field of the self-oscillating polymer system that can drive without the external stimuli under the constant temperature conditions. The driving force of the self-oscillating polymer system is produced by the dissipating chemical energy of the Belouzov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. The BZ reaction is well known as an oscillating reaction accompanying spontaneous redox oscillations to generate a wide variety of nonlinear phenomena, e.g., a target or spiral pattern in an unstirred solution, and periodicity, multi-periodicity, or chaos in a stirred solution. The overall process of the BZ reaction is the oxidation of an organic substrate by an oxidizing agent in the presence of the catalyst under strong acidic condition. In the BZ reaction, the metal catalyst undergoes spontaneous redox self-oscillation, and it changes the solubility from hydrophilic to hydrophobic at the same time. The polymer system realized the self-oscillation by synchronize with the periodical solubility change of the Ru catalyst moiety. In recent years, the self-oscillating polymer system improved the molecular design in order to apply to micro fluid devices. The micro fluid devices with the self-oscillating polymer actuator do not need a power supply and external control devices.
