Smart polymer surfaces

Abstract

The preparation of smart surfaces (i.e., surfaces exhibiting switchable and a priori contradictory properties) has been extensively pursued during the last decade. Their unique adaptability by property variation as a function of environmental changes has found multiple industrial applications in fields including sensoring and diagnosis or in the biomedical field to promote, for instance, cell and tissue engineering. This chapter will provide an overview of the main strategies reported to produce adaptive surfaces depending on the external stimuli employed to vary reversibly the surface properties. The variation of the surface topography at the micro- and nanopatterned interfaces will be described as an additional tool to significantly alter the final surface properties. Differentiation will be provided between the methodologies to prepare patterned surfaces as a function of their final resolution. Finally, some of the applications will be highlighted in which smart polymer surfaces have been applied including wettability, biomedical purposes, sensoring, or smart adhesion.