Smart inorganic polymer

[1] While organic polymers are often petrol-based, the backbones of SIPs are made from elements other than carbon which can lessen the burden on scarce non-renewable resources and provide more sustainable alternatives.

SIPs have the potential for broad applicability in diverse fields spanning from drug delivery and tissue regeneration to coatings and electronics.

[1] The results of this work are reviewed in the 2019 book, Smart Inorganic Polymers: Synthesis, Properties, and Emerging Applications in Materials and Life Sciences.

[11] This smart ability to attenuate the kind of tissue regenerated in response to different metal cations makes it a promising polymer for biomedical applications.

Some polyphosphazenes have been designed through the addition of amino acid ester side chains such that their LCST is near body temperature and thus they can form a gel in situ upon injection into a person, making them potentially useful for drug delivery.

[12] Poly-ProDOT-Me2 is a phosphorus-based inorganic-organic hybrid polymer, which, when paired to a V2O5 film, provides a material that changes color upon application of an electrical current.

[15] It is especially unique in the way that the conductive tin backbone is surrounded by organic substituents, making it act as an atomic-scale insulated wire.

[14] One such example is a thin film of a polystyrene-polyferrocenylsilane inorganic-organic hybrid copolymer that was found to be able to adsorb and release ferritin with the application of an electrical potential.

[20] This sort of activity is not limited to glucose, as other enzymes can be crosslinked to allow for sensing of their corresponding molecules, like a poly(vinylferrocene)/carboxylated multiwall carbon nanotube/gelatin composite that was bound to uricase, giving it the ability to act as a biosensor for uric acid.