Younsoo KIM, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, won a Excellent Poster Presentation Award in the MANA International symposium 2015

Younsoo KIM in the Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, won a Excellent Poster Presentation Award in the MANA International symposium 2015.

<About awarded research>

 Recently, we found that unilamellar titania nanosheets, dispersed in water, are oriented perpendicular to the flux line of magnetic field.  Through in-situ polymerization of acryl monomer in the dispersion, the aligned structure can be chemically locked in the hydrogel network.  Based on this strategy, we fabricated a thermoresponsive hydrogel by hybridization of poly-N-isopropylacrylamide with uniformly aligned titania nanosheets.  The resultant hydrogel showed anisotropic and anomalous swelling/deswelling behavior in response to temperature changes below or above LCST. Unlike conventional actuators, this deformation is realized by an unprecedented mechanism, where a repulsive force among TiNSs is physically modulated by a change in permittivity of the gelling water synchronous with thermal hydration and dehydration of a NIPAM gel network.

<Comments>

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