Younsoo KIM in the Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, won a CSJ Student Presentation Award 2014 in 94th Annual Meeting of the Chemical Society of Japan

Younsoo KIM in the Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, won a CSJ Student Presentation Award 2014 in 94th Annual Meeting of the Chemical Society of Japan.

<About awarded research>

 We have successfully synthesized anomalous anisotropic hydrogel by hybridization of the gel with the well-aligned titania nanosheet. The unilamellar titania nanosheets, dispersed in water, are oriented perpendicular to the flux line of magnetic field.  Through in-situ polymerization of polyNIPAM in the dispersion, the aligned structure can be chemically locked in the hydrogel network.  The well-aligned titania nanosheet brought a drastic effect on the mode of the phase transition. It showed the deformation in highly anisotropic manner, where there are both of elongation and contraction at the high temperature. From the point of view of NIPAAm based hydrogel, it is first example that NiPAAm based hydrogel showed elongation even in the high temperature.
 Owing to such anisotropic response, the hybrid hydrogel can work as a thermal actuator in micro-fluid system. I hope our anisotropic NIPAM hydrogel can be widely utilized as biomimetic actuators or artificial muscles.

<Comments>

It is big honor to receive this award. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Prof. Takuzo Aida and also our lab members for all of their support. I`d like to take this opportunity to activate and poromote my research.