2020 Volume 20 Issue 6 Pages 251-257
In living systems, there are many autonomous and oscillatory phenomena such as heart beating. The author developed “self-oscillating” polymer gels that undergo spontaneous cyclic swelling-deswelling changes without any on-off switching of external stimuli as heart beating. The self-oscillating gels were designed by utilizing the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction, an oscillating reaction, as a chemical model of the TCA cycle. They have been systematically studied since the first report in 1996. Potential applications include several kinds of functional material systems such as biomimetic actuators, mass transport systems and functional fluids. In this review, the research progress is summarized.
