Thermoactive Smart Electrospun Nanofibers

Abstract

The recent burst of research on smart materials is a clear evidence of the growing interest of the scientific community, industry, and society in the field.The exploitation of the great potential of stimuli-responsive materials for sensing, actuation, logic, and control applications is favored and supported by new manufacturing technologies, such as electrospinning, that allows to endow smart materials with micro-and nanostructuration, thus opening up additional and unprecedented prospects. In this wide and lively scenario, this article systematically reviews the current advances in the development of thermoactive electrospun fibers and textiles, sorting them, according to their response to the thermal stimulus. Hence, several platforms including thermoresponsive systems, shape memory polymers, thermo-optically responsive systems, phase change materials, thermoelectric materials, and pyroelectric materials, are described and critically discussed. The difference in active species and outputs of the aforementioned categories is highlighted, evidencing the transversal nature of temperature stimulus. Moreover, the potential of novel thermoactive materials are pointed out, revealing how their development could take to utmost interesting achievements.

Bioinspired Cyclic Dipeptide Functionalized Nanofibers for Thermal Sensing and Energy Harvesting

“…Importantly, the pyroelectric coefficient measured on a bundle of diphenylalanine microtubes was reported to be around [ 39 ], one order of magnitude smaller than that presented in this work for Cyclo (L-Trp-L-Trp)@PLLA and Cyclo (L-Trp-L-Trp)@PCL electropsun fibers. Our results are significant and indicate that the electrospun fiber mats are potential candidates to integrate into pyroelectric sensing [ 40 ]. Moreover, this is the first work reporting the pyroelectric properties of a cyclo-dipeptide.…”

Near‐infrared light activated core‐shell electrospun nanofibers decorated with photoactive plasmonic nanoparticles for on‐demand smart drug delivery applications

“…Among electromagnetic waves, UV and IR are the most used in biomedical applications. 23 UV light can damage tissues and cells due to high scattering and absorption by water and proteins in the human body through a one-photon mechanism. In contrast to UV, near-infrared (NIR) light can be absorbed through a twophoton process.…”

“…Electromagnetic radiation can cause chemical or physical changes in the material's structure. Among electromagnetic waves, UV and IR are the most used in biomedical applications 23 . UV light can damage tissues and cells due to high scattering and absorption by water and proteins in the human body through a one‐photon mechanism.…”

Bioinspired Cyclic Dipeptide Functionalized Nanofibers for Thermal Sensing and Energy Harvesting

“…Importantly, the pyroelectric coefficient measured on a bundle of diphenylalanine microtubes was reported to be around 2×10 -6 Cm -2 k -1 [34], one order of magnitude smaller than that presented in this work for Cyclo(L-Trp-L-Trp) embedded into biocompatible electropsun fibers. Our results are significant and indicate that Cyclo(L-Trp-L-Trp)@PCL and Cyclo(L-Trp-L-Trp)@PLLA electrospun fiber mats are potential candidates to integrate into pyroelectric sensing [35]. Moreover, this is the first work reporting the pyroelectric properties of a cyclo-dipeptide.…”