Exploring actuation and mechanotransduction properties of polymer brushes

Soft nanotechnology requires new approaches and materials to efficiently convert chemical energy into mechanical motion and vice versa. A number of key design parameters, such as responsiveness to external stimuli, directionality of response through alignment, transduction via surface stresses or changes in ionic conductivity can be found in polymer brushes and several recent examples of actuation and transduction in polymer brushes will be explored.